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Android P

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Re: Android P

#131

Post by angry_octet »

airlocksoftware wrote: post #96
angry_octet wrote: post #51

Lots of slick UI stuff, but no meaningful updates to things that are well overdue: - Encryption of specific secrets for each app. - Fine grained control of what information is shared with apps. - Ability to selectively deny particular data (and have the app keep working, e.g by giving it an empty contacts list, fake phone ID, etc). - Ad and js blocking capable browser. Why should installing e.g. the facebook app, all…

Location tracking requires specific permission from the user, not as part of installation. I think you're a bit out of date. https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/deve...

If you enable location just once (e.g. to check in to a location) it has that permission until you laboriously find the control in per app settings, and apps can use your location any time from then on, including in the background.

Re: Android P

#132

Post by untog »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #95
saon wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this applies only to installed apps from the store, not system apps like googles or oem apps. you cant disable background activity of any apps. dont want an always listening ai helper from google? too bad for you.

Just don't use them. Unlike in iOS, you can replace all those apps with other apps that you prefer. No rooting or jailbreaking required. If you don't like Google Assistant, you can use Alexa or Cortana or something entirely different. If you don't like Siri on iOS, tough luck. https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/7/17328758/amazon-alexa-defa...

Not true these days. If you want to use location, the app has to use Google Location Services. No matter what the final app is.

Re: Android P

#133

Post by convivialdingo »

airlocksoftware wrote: post #96
angry_octet wrote: post #51

Lots of slick UI stuff, but no meaningful updates to things that are well overdue: - Encryption of specific secrets for each app. - Fine grained control of what information is shared with apps. - Ability to selectively deny particular data (and have the app keep working, e.g by giving it an empty contacts list, fake phone ID, etc). - Ad and js blocking capable browser. Why should installing e.g. the facebook app, all…

Location tracking requires specific permission from the user, not as part of installation. I think you're a bit out of date. https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/deve...

I recently switched to iOS for this reason. Yes there are permissions - but Android still periodically activated location services despite my settings.

Googles insistence on capturing as much data as possible about me is just creepy. I disabled voice search, location history, and everything else I could. Switching to DuckDuckGo made a big difference, but still the data gets swallowed up.

I know that Apple is only slightly better - but I’ll take whatever privacy I can get.

Re: Android P

#134

Post by angry_octet »

gruez wrote: post #75
angry_octet wrote: post #51

Lots of slick UI stuff, but no meaningful updates to things that are well overdue: - Encryption of specific secrets for each app. - Fine grained control of what information is shared with apps. - Ability to selectively deny particular data (and have the app keep working, e.g by giving it an empty contacts list, fake phone ID, etc). - Ad and js blocking capable browser. Why should installing e.g. the facebook app, all…

>Encryption of specific secrets for each app. you mean something like ios keychain? what does this do that can't be achieved using disk encryption + sandbox? >Ad and js blocking capable browser. firefox for android

> you mean something like ios keychain? what does this do that can't be achieved using disk encryption + sandbox?

Because once the phone is booted and unlocked by the user there is no further protection. Do you keep your phone turned off?

Also the lack of device pairing means it is usually easy to dump the encrypted image and crack the pass code quite quickly.

https://blog.elcomsoft.com/2017/10/ios-vs-android-physical-d...

> firefox for android

I find it quite slow, slower than chrome downloading all the ads. But it is an option I guess. It won't get wider uptake though, the default platform browser is the main game.

Re: Android P

#135

Post by flukus »

tomp wrote: post #34
wpietri wrote: post #21

Very nice. I am especially excited about these features: > App Timer lets you set time limits on apps, and will nudge you when you’re close to your limit and then gray out the icon to remind you of your goal. > Wind Down will switch on Night Light when it gets dark, and it will turn on Do Not Disturb and fade the screen to grayscale at your chosen bedtime to help you remember to get to sleep at the time you want. I a…

I wonder how many of these features could be implemented (far sooner) if a universal UI scripting language was available for users...

Not sure about the first example, but the second one can be done through automation apps like tasker: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch....

Re: Android P

#136

Post by givinguflac »

ams6110 wrote: post #116
airlocksoftware wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Location tracking requires specific permission from the user, not as part of installation. I think you're a bit out of date. https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/deve...

Even on older phones, you can turn location services off, which I do at all times unless I'm actively navigating.

This doesn’t actually help on android as google can still determine location by scanning local WiFi network info.

Re: Android P

#137

Post by angry_octet »

TheForumTroll wrote: post #81
saon wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this applies only to installed apps from the store, not system apps like googles or oem apps. you cant disable background activity of any apps. dont want an always listening ai helper from google? too bad for you.

Root, remove, unroot.

Is it unreasonable to hope that the default configuration used by 99% of users won't shout your personal data all over the internet?

Re: Android P

#138

Post by angry_octet »

propogandist wrote: post #84
TheForumTroll wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Root, remove, unroot.

you ideally want something like Xprivacy, which is unfortunately no longer supported Install something like Netguard (same dev behind Xprivacy) -- which functions as a firewall (vpn) b/w apps and the internet. Turn on logging. Watch all the apps you have installed phoning home and services like graph.facebook.com every few moments.

Another good point -- it sucks stupid amounts of data and radio power. People are always puzzled by how quickly they go through their data, some advertising systems can suck ~500MB/month of cellular data. Some telcos have specifically started showing usage graphs identifying traffic as advertising, but it can be hard to see which app or web page is the culprit.

Re: Android P

#139

Post by nine_k »

tomp wrote: post #72
rtpg wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, I'm pretty sure anyone could have built these apps on Android You can overwrite the screen in Android. You can replace the home screen in Android. You can scrape running apps in Android. There's a high degree of flexibility Unfortunately this is probably one of those problems where the cost of building the app is relatively high (because the domain is complicated to get right!) and it would be hard to make…

Building an app is way too much barrier to entry... What I wish is something like, right-click or swipe down to open console , enter some script (or copy-paste/import a highly starred from a public repository), close console, ta-da. If the API was flexible enough, the scripts would mostly be short and obviously non-exploiting (i.e. a script for graying-out the screen shouldn't use the internet API) so they would be v…

A few steps further you will invent something like Emacs. Or maybe Atom. Or browser extensions.

BTW do you remember why making a browser extension is a bit involved, and publishing, even more so? Trusting someone else's code. Copy -pasting it from a message board may end up in a problem.

Re: Android P

#140

Post by dvcrn »

wpietri wrote: post #21

Very nice. I am especially excited about these features: > App Timer lets you set time limits on apps, and will nudge you when you’re close to your limit and then gray out the icon to remind you of your goal. > Wind Down will switch on Night Light when it gets dark, and it will turn on Do Not Disturb and fade the screen to grayscale at your chosen bedtime to help you remember to get to sleep at the time you want. I a…

I hope some of these things make it into iOS at some point too! Especially the greyscale stuff sounds great
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