If they just audited apps and banned companies from the app store for abuse it would do a lot to curb this behavior. This is feasible, there just aren't THAT many popular apps at any given time.
Everyone knows all the apps on your phone
31–40 of 502 posts
Re: Everyone knows all the apps on your phone
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you essentially discussing like a keylogger? I can't imagine windows intentionally keeps the plaintext password anywhere longer than it needs to be.
Obviously there's no way for a malicious program to grab your login credentials that you've entered into an incognito tab that have been closed. There might not be sandboxing, but viruses can't timetravel yet. However that's not going to be much of a defense when many users use password managers, and are terrible at detecting malware (so it's only a matter of time before their passwords are keylogged).
> viruses can't timetravel yet
_Windows Recall to the rescue!_
Re: Everyone knows all the apps on your phone
#33> everyone knows all the alls on your phone On Android phones. iPhone doesn’t have this privacy deficiency.
Are you sure? I know someone in adtech and I'm pretty sure Apple allows a similar app manifest that allows you to check for specific apps. I could be wrong.
> I know someone in adtech and I'm pretty sure Apple allows a similar app manifest that allows you to check for specific apps. I could be wrong.
On iOS an app developer will need to register in advance which external applications their app intends to query, and the list needs to be very short and motivated. [1]
Incidentally, “I have a friend who says...” isn’t really a good citation anywhere outside Reddit - which HN resembles more and more each day.
[1] https://www.hackingwithswift.com/example-code/system/how-to-...
Re: Everyone knows all the apps on your phone
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
this doesn’t make sense and sounds like an excuse IMO. Instead of the browser enumerating all apps, why can’t it check when you visit a page if the current page (ONLY the current page) is installed as an app?
How would the OS know if the app that the browser is querying about is actually the current page? For all the OS knows, the user might be quickly visiting a ton of play.google.com pages for the top 1000 apps on the app store.
make it into a system dialog?
Re: Everyone knows all the apps on your phone
#35> everyone knows all the alls on your phone On Android phones. iPhone doesn’t have this privacy deficiency.
Right, only Apple knows, but it’s ok, they’re the good guys
Definitely not “good” but I’m still to see anything remotely resembling the complete disregard for privacy and security typical for the adtech-driven android ecosystem.
Just a different business model, not a display of moral values.
Sure, Pegasus exists but I don’t think it is commodified yet.
Re: Everyone knows all the apps on your phone
#36Well, things are particularly more complicated on my case: I don't use google services and only install apps from f-droid.
Re: Everyone knows all the apps on your phone
#37Another fantastic reason to strictly only install apps from F-Droid.
How does that address the problem? Does F-Droid do some sort of additional screening to keep out apps that do this?
First, f-droid only accepts OSS apps, so the incentives for spyware is simply not there. Second, anti-features are explicitly marked on f-droid. Third, f-droid apps are curated like a very rigorous linux repo.
Re: Everyone knows all the apps on your phone
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you sure? I know someone in adtech and I'm pretty sure Apple allows a similar app manifest that allows you to check for specific apps. I could be wrong.
> I know someone in adtech and I'm pretty sure Apple allows a similar app manifest that allows you to check for specific apps. I could be wrong. On iOS an app developer will need to register in advance which external applications their app intends to query, and the list needs to be very short and motivated. [1] Incidentally, “I have a friend who says...” isn’t really a good citation anywhere outside Reddit - which HN…
Thanks for the information.
I suppose a more appropriate term of phrase would've been "I'd heard anecdotally...", but I agree I was lazy with my original reply. I appreciate the feedback.
Re: Everyone knows all the apps on your phone
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
How would the OS know if the app that the browser is querying about is actually the current page? For all the OS knows, the user might be quickly visiting a ton of play.google.com pages for the top 1000 apps on the app store.
make it into a system dialog?
But God forbid users learn how to use their device. All of this could be prevented by having the users manually pick the application instead.
Re: Everyone knows all the apps on your phone
#40> For extremely specific use cases such as file managers, browsers or antivirus apps, Google grants an exception by allowing QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES permission, which provides full visibility into installed apps. Why would browser need to enumerate the installed apps? Why?!
When a user visits a play.google.com URL Google wants to be able to show either an "install" or a "launch" button contingent on whether the app is already installed. In other words, blame Google product management.
A minor UX difference doesn't really feel like a great case for reducing user privacy, it makes me a little concerned about priorities... which I already was, really.