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Popular Google Play store apps are abusing permissions and committing ad fraud

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Re: Popular Google Play store apps are abusing permissions and committing ad fraud

#111

Post by lostgame »

pergadad wrote: post #109
gyaniv wrote: post #99

I'm not entirely sure I have that much of a problem with ad fraud, doesn't it only hurt the ad companies and companies like google (which I have a problem with anyway), by basically scamming them into believing that I interacted so that company should be compensated. I do object to collecting and sending my personal information, but I feel they just mixed it, as that probably relates to more then just these Chinese a…

It hurts mostly the companies paying for ads, and probably mostly smaller ones that can't detect the issue. Think your local car dealer.

I’ve never seen an ad for my local car dealer, or similar, in an iOS app, for instance. Just saying.

Re: Popular Google Play store apps are abusing permissions and committing ad fraud

#112

Post by simonh »

gameswithgo wrote: post #7

the locked in store model has completely failed. both for ios and android it is a terrible experience compared to PC. you are stuck with only the search tools the hardware maker gives you, often designed in a user hostile way (ios brings up ads) and no way to bail out to a different store. as well the monoculture leads to a race to the bottom with garbage programs shoving their way to the top via misleading a dishone…

How can you on the one hand complain the locked into a store model has failed, then say yes you know Android has multiple stores and you can side-load.

Doesn't that mean the multiple-stores and side-loading model has failed also? I'm not quite sure what your point is.

Re: Popular Google Play store apps are abusing permissions and committing ad fraud

#113

Post by michaelt »

gloflo wrote: post #93
LoSboccacc wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can't see anywhere mentioned geofencing.

Geofencing is just conditionally acting depending on a location. All you need for it is a location.

If we want to show users permission dialogs and that let them make good decisions, there's a need for finer grain APIs to allow finer-grain permissions.

For example, for a smart home app asking 'precise location constantly even when not using the app' is sufficient to perform geofencing - but asking for a more limited 'know when you arrive home' is much more likely to get user approval.

Re: Popular Google Play store apps are abusing permissions and committing ad fraud

#114

Post by dwighttk »

gloflo wrote: post #93
LoSboccacc wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can't see anywhere mentioned geofencing.

Geofencing is just conditionally acting depending on a location. All you need for it is a location.

You also need to be able to run in the background

Re: Popular Google Play store apps are abusing permissions and committing ad fraud

#115

Post by deadbunny »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #105
tremon wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft, for all their other flaws, usually keeps out of the business of selling their consumers. Perhaps it's because they have better (internal) monetization possibilities.

Last time I used a Windows computer, there were tons of advertisements in the start menu.

And on the lock screen.

Re: Popular Google Play store apps are abusing permissions and committing ad fraud

#116

Post by [deleted] »

DarwinMailApp wrote: post #94
rayraegah wrote: post #15

It's not just ad fraud, they've been copying information like whatsapp phone number, reddit username, telegram username etc. https://www.reddit.com/r/miband/comments/8eqtve/why_did_mifi...

I actually can't believe this. How in the name of all the is holy are we letting them get away with this. Sure, we talk about the problem a lot. But we need to take action. It seems every big corporation are abusing the trust we give them in some form or another. Please, for the love of God, can anybody prove me wrong. Are there any companies than don't abuse our trust?

[deleted]

Re: Popular Google Play store apps are abusing permissions and committing ad fraud

#117

Post by fghtr »

DarwinMailApp wrote: post #94
rayraegah wrote: post #15

It's not just ad fraud, they've been copying information like whatsapp phone number, reddit username, telegram username etc. https://www.reddit.com/r/miband/comments/8eqtve/why_did_mifi...

I actually can't believe this. How in the name of all the is holy are we letting them get away with this. Sure, we talk about the problem a lot. But we need to take action. It seems every big corporation are abusing the trust we give them in some form or another. Please, for the love of God, can anybody prove me wrong. Are there any companies than don't abuse our trust?

>Are there any companies than don't abuse our trust?

I guess you need to look in the direction of GNU/Linux. For example, company https://puri.sm. They have nice laptops and nice Debian-based OS and they are working on the phone (soon to be released).

Re: Popular Google Play store apps are abusing permissions and committing ad fraud

#119

Post by gyaniv »

pergadad wrote: post #109
gyaniv wrote: post #99

I'm not entirely sure I have that much of a problem with ad fraud, doesn't it only hurt the ad companies and companies like google (which I have a problem with anyway), by basically scamming them into believing that I interacted so that company should be compensated. I do object to collecting and sending my personal information, but I feel they just mixed it, as that probably relates to more then just these Chinese a…

It hurts mostly the companies paying for ads, and probably mostly smaller ones that can't detect the issue. Think your local car dealer.

I would actually think the smaller ones would detect the issue faster, simply because they would see ad clicks and recognize no new business, as opposed to bigger ones, that this would be an insignificant change they wouldn't notice.

In addition, I don't see the companies paying for ads getting hurt the most, in the end, if they would recognize that these types of ads are inefficient, they just wouldn't use it as much (they would use other outlets) or lower how much the value (and pay) for it. Which would help me (by getting rid of something I dislike), and at the same time hurt those that maintain and support that part of the business in the adtech world (another plus for me).

Re: Popular Google Play store apps are abusing permissions and committing ad fraud

#120

Post by kenoph »

I did my Master Thesis on this kind of stuff. There are many Apps among the top 100 free ones that ask permissions completely unrelated to their functionality. Yeah I know, not surprising. What surprised me at the time was that Android gives away much information "for free". For example, if I recall correctly, GET_ACCOUNTS was granted automatically and it allowed to get the "title" of every account on the phone as shown in the Android UI. Most Apps use the actual username as the title, google included (aka, every App could read your email address). Nice exceptions are Signal and WhatsApp.
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