Google is forcing us to make our open source VoIP app worse

Post by pydry » Thu, Oct 20, 2022, 10:07 PM UTC

bakugo wrote: post #78

secretsatan wrote: post #40

I kinda sorta see google’s side. There are just too many shady operators out there who will swear blind they’re completely honest, and maybe they are, but they also employed a third party to write code or maybe just imported a 3rd party lib (i am in no way saying this is the case) As to, why don’t they look at the code? bugger that being standard practise, i’m not handing over my code to google or apple. Even if they…

So why not just remove the Contacts API entirely then? If it exists, "shady operators" can misuse it. Oh and, camera apps made by "shady operators" could be sending your pictures to questionable places so why not remove the Camera API as well? And we can't forget that "shady operators" could be snooping through your files so let's remove the filesystem API too. Actually now that I think about it, any app could be mal…

Post by heavyset_go » Thu, Oct 20, 2022, 10:10 PM UTC

getcrunk wrote: post #138

secretsatan wrote: post #40

I kinda sorta see google’s side. There are just too many shady operators out there who will swear blind they’re completely honest, and maybe they are, but they also employed a third party to write code or maybe just imported a 3rd party lib (i am in no way saying this is the case) As to, why don’t they look at the code? bugger that being standard practise, i’m not handing over my code to google or apple. Even if they…

I don't know how it is in all cases, but at least when using java back in the day, the source of a binary was trivial to look at? And now many apps are written in js

Post by binkHN » Thu, Oct 20, 2022, 10:14 PM UTC

bryceacc wrote: post #116

AlexandrB wrote: post #16

With the exception of Signal, I never give apps access to my contacts. If you think that's paranoid, remember how apps like LinkedIn used this kind of information in the past[1]. Thankfully on iOS apps almost always work without contact access (is this mandated by App Store rules?). It's not clear from the article if the app just asks for access to contacts or requires it, but if you can't make your Voip app work wit…

there are multiple apps i have encountered that would not let you type in a phone number to start a chat. you HAVE to give contact access and have whatever number you wanted to chat with saved as a contact

Post by capitalsigma » Thu, Oct 20, 2022, 10:14 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #34

ziddoap wrote: post #7

I'm not familiar with mobile app review process, would any change in code require a re-review/re-submit? If Google approved it as-is, could the developers add a few lines as an "update" and skip over the full review process? Seems like the ruling is being made on what can be done with the current permissions, rather than what is being done. If that's the case, I sympathize with the devs but I think I support the posi…

The code review is done 'black box' - ie. the reviewer doesn't have access to the code. All the reviewer can see is what permissions the app has. They see internet permission and contacts permission, and have to assume that evil code might be uploading the contacts to the internet. There isn't really any other way to do it - even a thorough code audit (a process that would take months for just a single app) would be…

Post by kaushikc » Thu, Oct 20, 2022, 10:24 PM UTC

psykus wrote: post #148

Is Google seriously just run by AI at this point? I imagine at some point up the middle management chain it’s just a layer of AI making decisions that no one has the authority to override. Similar to how Amazon warehouse workers say that they’re working for an algorithm at this point making hiring/firing decisions.