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India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

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Re: India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

#51

Post by 0432894820432 »

hobarrera wrote: post #48
hiby007 wrote: post #14

I am an regular Flipkart User, and I do not like this behaviour, Flipkart is forcing me to move to an mobile app, just to have better control and tracking. They have already stopped supporting the mobile website, and it simply instructs you to download the app to continue. This is the moment I have completely stopped using flipkart and moved to amazon.in I like website more than app, both gets the job done, where as…

It's already past time that Android had (out-of-the-box) a "don't grant access but make the application think I did"-checkbox. Essentially, showing fake data to the app if you pick this (eg: no photos, fake contacts, etc). AFAIK, there are some android apps (and cyanogen) that add this features, but it really needs to be worked on upstream. This is doubly useful for google, since they can always keep their own apps a…

I lost my hope when they removed the "access to the Internet" permission from the list of privileges. Now you take for granted that all apps will try to do that.

I use AFWall+ and CyanogenMod's Privacy Guard to control everything, but it's sad that the data of most people I know may be stolen without their knowledge after they install yet another Subway Surfers-type game or "vintage photo effects" app.

Re: India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

#52

Post by codemac »

hobarrera wrote: post #48
hiby007 wrote: post #14

I am an regular Flipkart User, and I do not like this behaviour, Flipkart is forcing me to move to an mobile app, just to have better control and tracking. They have already stopped supporting the mobile website, and it simply instructs you to download the app to continue. This is the moment I have completely stopped using flipkart and moved to amazon.in I like website more than app, both gets the job done, where as…

It's already past time that Android had (out-of-the-box) a "don't grant access but make the application think I did"-checkbox. Essentially, showing fake data to the app if you pick this (eg: no photos, fake contacts, etc). AFAIK, there are some android apps (and cyanogen) that add this features, but it really needs to be worked on upstream. This is doubly useful for google, since they can always keep their own apps a…

CyanogenMOD's PrivacyGuard is pretty close to this, I don't use stock android anymore due to this.

Re: India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

#53

Post by perdunov »

hobarrera wrote: post #48
hiby007 wrote: post #14

I am an regular Flipkart User, and I do not like this behaviour, Flipkart is forcing me to move to an mobile app, just to have better control and tracking. They have already stopped supporting the mobile website, and it simply instructs you to download the app to continue. This is the moment I have completely stopped using flipkart and moved to amazon.in I like website more than app, both gets the job done, where as…

It's already past time that Android had (out-of-the-box) a "don't grant access but make the application think I did"-checkbox. Essentially, showing fake data to the app if you pick this (eg: no photos, fake contacts, etc). AFAIK, there are some android apps (and cyanogen) that add this features, but it really needs to be worked on upstream. This is doubly useful for google, since they can always keep their own apps a…

That would be horrible for normal developers.

People would use it all the time, and then complain that the app doesn't work.

The actual problem is the "all or nothing" security model that needs to be replaced with contextual permissions (like "This app wants to access your photos right now. Allow?", see iOS).

The "all or nothing" model defeats its own purpose by effectively leaving no choice for the user.

Re: India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

#54

Post by Indyan »

codemac wrote: post #52
hobarrera wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's already past time that Android had (out-of-the-box) a "don't grant access but make the application think I did"-checkbox. Essentially, showing fake data to the app if you pick this (eg: no photos, fake contacts, etc). AFAIK, there are some android apps (and cyanogen) that add this features, but it really needs to be worked on upstream. This is doubly useful for google, since they can always keep their own apps a…

CyanogenMOD's PrivacyGuard is pretty close to this, I don't use stock android anymore due to this.

Xiaomi's MiUI has also had this feature for quite some time. They call it the Permission Manager - http://www.androidbeat.com/2014/08/use-permissions-manager-m....

Re: India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

#55

Post by winter_blue »

hobarrera wrote: post #48
hiby007 wrote: post #14

I am an regular Flipkart User, and I do not like this behaviour, Flipkart is forcing me to move to an mobile app, just to have better control and tracking. They have already stopped supporting the mobile website, and it simply instructs you to download the app to continue. This is the moment I have completely stopped using flipkart and moved to amazon.in I like website more than app, both gets the job done, where as…

It's already past time that Android had (out-of-the-box) a "don't grant access but make the application think I did"-checkbox. Essentially, showing fake data to the app if you pick this (eg: no photos, fake contacts, etc). AFAIK, there are some android apps (and cyanogen) that add this features, but it really needs to be worked on upstream. This is doubly useful for google, since they can always keep their own apps a…

It'll be better if there are checkboxes next to each permission, and if the user doesn't grant a certain permission, the app can know.

Older apps targeting older API levels will receive fake data, whereas newer apps will be able to know whether they were actually granted the permission or not.

This would prevent apps (and app developers) from being left in the dark, and would also kill the "all or nothing" permissions model currently in place.

Re: India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

#56

Post by godzilla82 »

brianbreslin wrote: post #38
praneshp wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you clarify what "provider" means? Is it Flipkart or the network (Airtel, etc)?

He means mobile service provider (airtel, vodafone, at&t, etc)

Oh, I thought he meant the App or the Play store.. Isnt that how in app purchases work?

Re: India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

#57

Post by 0432894820432 »

icebraining wrote: post #8
lucasmullens wrote: post #6

This is crazy. It used to be that companies who couldn't do both mobile and desktop just made an app wrap their website. Maybe we need the reverse of a WebView. A website that does nothing more than emulate an app.

It actually already exists: https://www.manymo.com/

I just used it to access cmyip.com, and it shows their IP without identifying it as a proxy... I tried to contact them to say that people can abuse it, but there's no way to contact them without creating an account. :( Welp.

Re: India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

#58

Post by thaumasiotes »

avinassh wrote: post #49
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, don't worry, it gets worse: * Android does not let you selectively grant permissions (unlike iOS) * Android expects you to give an app all permissions at once at install time, carte blanche (unlike iOS) * Doing certain very basic things often requires a broad permission - for example, checking if music is playing so the app can mute itself? "Read phone state" - which includes the phone number you're calling * Goo…

Do these problems exists on rooted devices also? Is there any work around or some tweak?

Cyanogenmod still includes the app ops.

Re: India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

#60

Post by heroic »

To be precise, 85-90% of their customers are now coming through mobile app. Going forward, it doesn't make sense for them to support so many platforms. People using their website are now a minority. Keeping the website operational is just too much effort in the long run for them.

You can compare this with, how many developers worry about Blackberry when they launch? Hardly any! The reasoning is simple: it's a platform whose usage is sinking(was?).

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