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Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

gultsch.social

111–120 of 184 posts

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#111
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google doesn't know that its GET request doesn't get orders from a botnet and leaks sensitive data the app has access to. And yet the only reason Google won't add internet access as a revocable permission is their ad business. Chrome constantly scans your harddrive in a way you can't easily turn off, and it's not for your safety: it's for the safety of their ad business to try to catch malware that engages in click…

>Chrome constantly scans your harddrive in a way you can't easily turn off, and it's not for your safety: it's for the safety of their ad business to try to catch malware that engages in click fraud. If you have media or backup drives it just constantly adds wear to them. Is this true? Chrome is open source so someone should be able to point out the code that is doing that. What is the source of this info if not the…

https://blog.google/products/chrome/cleaner-safer-web-chrome...

https://www.google.com/chrome/privacy/whitepaper.html#unwant...

> Chrome periodically scans your device to detect potentially unwanted software. In addition, if you have opted in to automatically report details of possible security incidents to Google, Chrome will report information about unwanted software, including relevant file metadata and system settings linked to the unwanted software found on your computer.

> System information includes metadata about programs installed or running on your system that could be associated with harmful software, such as: services and processes, scheduled tasks, system registry values commonly used by malicious software, command-line arguments of Chrome shortcuts, Windows proxy settings, and software modules loaded into Chrome or the network stack.

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not an android user but from what I've understood is that Google is desperate to deprecate apps that were compiled for earlier Android SDKs before they introduced more iOS-style privacy APIs

Agree that this is the reason. I have an app in the Play store and starting in June I have to get a D-U-N-S number, have a phone & email for users to contact me, a phone & email for Google to contact me and documents to verify my identity and my business.

Since there are also Google apps on the store, does it means that we will finally have a phone and an email to contact Google ? :-)

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#114
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m using the F-Droid version, but I bought it on Play.

The best method is to install the F-Droid version and donate directly to the developer. Google takes a 30% cut on Play purchases. In the case of Conversations, Daniel has an account on Liberapay: https://liberapay.com/iNPUTmice/

This definitely helps the developer but as they said (https://gultsch.social/@daniel/111930342452832163) they much prefer having Conversations being available to non-techy people than relying on the hardcore fans

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#115

I use an open source SPAM call blocker (Yet another call blocker), which works fairly OK by querying a local spam phone number database. Recently Google Play decided to display a permanent notification prompting me to uninstall that "dangerous" app because it could "damage" my device. It's impossible to disable this notification. This app hasn't been updated in years. It has no ads. The only network request it makes…

I think last year or so there was an issue where Microsoft Teams broke the phones ability to dial 911 in certain situations. It was something about Teams taking over the dialer or something? I can't recall exactly. Google understandably took a huge amount of flak from users for that and the FCC got involved. It was fixed, but the reputational hit was significant and I'd bet they're a lot more aggressive with any apps that interact with the phone/dialer in general now. Especially ones that aren't being consistently updated.

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#117
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and there is an option to opt-out of that list. I did enable that. I'll phrase my issue differently: Is there any way to have reliable notification delivery that are time critical? Is actually calling the only 100% reliable option, as the PagerDuty does?

Push notifications via play services are the only reliable way. They work even with battery saver on (but not extreme battery saver, unless the app is excluded). Note that you can only have one push notification reliably per user interaction. So once you have sent a notification, further ones won't be reliably delivered until the user interacts with your app in some way.

That's perfect, thank you!

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just a PR game of shifting blame. Who's responsible of all those privacy issues on mobile? Google's own ad machine powered by the GMS running as privileged user or the apps? They chose quickly. Both companies response to the press has been to blame the apps again and again hoping that it would be enough to continue what they are doing. Occasionally they even blame the users directly, the play store page on insta…

Per the amount of access they have some shit tier third parties will steal more privacy as they won't give a damn about it. Most people don't mind the ad company measuring your general profile of interests but really don't want people to read their messages.

Google does both, the amount of stuff collectively harvested by GMS would make any app doing the same rejected on the play store.

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Chrome constantly scans your harddrive in a way you can't easily turn off, and it's not for your safety: it's for the safety of their ad business to try to catch malware that engages in click fraud. If you have media or backup drives it just constantly adds wear to them. Is this true? Chrome is open source so someone should be able to point out the code that is doing that. What is the source of this info if not the…

https://blog.google/products/chrome/cleaner-safer-web-chrome... https://www.google.com/chrome/privacy/whitepaper.html#unwant... > Chrome periodically scans your device to detect potentially unwanted software. In addition, if you have opted in to automatically report details of possible security incidents to Google, Chrome will report information about unwanted software, including relevant file metadata and system set…

This is interesting, I didn't know Chrome did this. But it doesn't back up the claim that "[i]f you have media or backup drives [Chrome] just constantly adds wear to them." Does anyone have anything on that?
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