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Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps

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Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps

#251

Post by jasonjs »

fblp wrote: post #127

After a long break from Uber I opened it up to price compare against Lyft. I switched between the two apps and then uber offered me two free rides. It seemed like it was detecting that I was hesitating to "come back" to Uber. I use Android Lollipop and even if the permission didn't allow them to see I was using Lyft, I wouldn't be suprised if they're trying to re-engage "hesitating" users and are snooping for whateve…

Interestingly, I had the exact same experience; opened Uber, got a ride estimate. Opened Lyft, got a ride estimate. Opened Uber again, and was presented with a promotion.

Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps

#252

Post by dredmorbius »

fabulist wrote: post #246
dredmorbius wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Thanks and good on Uber for correcting this, and communicating this publicly. That's excellent goodwill, and something the company could use more of. Now make sure this doesn't happen again. 2. The change likely would not have been made had people not complained. This is why I am reporting excessive Android permissions requests, both to developers and publicly. I've succeeded in having several other instances of e…

> 5. Someone really needs to kick Google's ass with a a) Free Software b) user-first c) privacy-respecting d) security conscious operating system for small mobile devices. Maybe Microsoft can be talked into funding Ubuntu Mobile or FirefoxOS. The fellows at https://copperhead.co look to be doing solid work.

Thanks, I'll take a look.

Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps

#253

Post by dredmorbius »

deskamess wrote: post #250
dredmorbius wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Thanks and good on Uber for correcting this, and communicating this publicly. That's excellent goodwill, and something the company could use more of. Now make sure this doesn't happen again. 2. The change likely would not have been made had people not complained. This is why I am reporting excessive Android permissions requests, both to developers and publicly. I've succeeded in having several other instances of e…

Is there a website where we can report or add our voice to apps that seem to request too much permissions. Some of the online course apps seem to do that (udemy, edx, etc).

Not that I'm aware. Maybe even just a good hashtag to start.

#AndroidPrivacy #CreepyApps #AppPrivacy

???

Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps

#254

Post by dredmorbius »

strcat wrote: post #248
dredmorbius wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it, that puts the onus fully on application developers, whom users have to trust. That's precisely the current problem.

No, it does not. Dangerous permission can be toggled off for all apps now. For apps on the new API level, they can no longer obtain dangerous permissions at install time. They have to trigger an OS-level prompt for the permission. They're supposed to explain why they need it before triggering the OS prompt and many apps did it poorly by adding an extra, meaningless prompt before the real one. This was't done for the…

For Marshmallow. Which 60% of current Android users don't have and will never have until they retire their current devices.

Which is why Google needs to fucking fix this retrospectively.

Re: Uber wants access to browsing history, bookmarks, and running apps

#255

Post by rhizome »

iofj wrote: post #160
rhizome wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the app log in every time it starts up, or does it just have a stored access token that is simply supplied with future requests regardless of whether it's been 5 hours or 5 months?

Given what the uber app does when it starts up (show you a map of your locations, with data from a few uber cars moving across it), I'd bet the app essentially contacts the servers immediately when it starts. The only this would get them is "how many times did a user try to get an uber without data connectivity" ...

Contacting servers is one thing, logging in is another. No authentication conversation needs to occur if the auth model is based on access tokens like generic OAuth flow.
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