I hope Tim Cook succeeds in convincing our government that privacy is important.
Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more
21–30 of 174 posts
Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more
#22> They had implemented that already a while ago, then reverted the behaviour, and now implemented it once again. This is, among many other reasons, why I finally dropped Android after the better part of a decade. The constant A/B/C/D/E testing makes every single thing they put out feel like it's a constant state of beta testing. It's to the point where you don't even know what to expect when you do something as funda…
It's funny how smart yet dumb A/B testing is. On one hand you can intelligently gauge the effect of changes, on the other hand you can push stupid shit since you have that power.
How about intelligently designing applications that you yourself want to use? Too hard.
Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more
#23I hope Tim Cook succeeds in convincing our government that privacy is important.
If you have to rely on people like Tim Cook ( who is anything but a regular person and could literally afford to have a hand crafted phone and OS build for himself) to convince your government of something for your benefit, something is wrong.
And btw, a huge amount of Apple's "privacy" schtick is pure marketing combined with gatekeeping. Oh no, we couldn't allow users to have the choice where to install an app from, or how to pay for it, because privacy and not because we like our tax.
Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just don't use proprietary applications (or don't expect them to serve you).
I switched to an iPhone and I'm using proprietary applications, but ones that don't randomly change their UI on a regular basis whenever some nameless product manager decides they want to use me to gather some new engagement metrics by rearranging UIs on my phone
No, they just entomb you into a comfy walled garden where it's only easy to do what Apple lets you do and where you hope some change made by some nameless product manager/CEO autocrat doesn't force you to buy more expensive hardware.
Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more
#25That seems OK since it still asks you as it needs them when running an app, and "prunes" permissions away from apps that you do not use often. Lots of apps only need specific permissions if you use specific parts of the app. And apps are much larger (one app does more things) than they were 5-10 years ago. Eg you can use some apps as a camera, but never as a photo editor, and get use out of it by only giving some spe…
What about standard permissions? The user is never prompted for them.
What are standard permissions in this context?
Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just don't use proprietary applications (or don't expect them to serve you).
I switched to an iPhone and I'm using proprietary applications, but ones that don't randomly change their UI on a regular basis whenever some nameless product manager decides they want to use me to gather some new engagement metrics by rearranging UIs on my phone
They do make arbitrary changes to the UI, though, and when that happens, you can be damn sure it's because some turtleneck somewhere decreed that the new way is the One True Way and there's no amount of user complaining that will fix it.
Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more
#27That seems OK since it still asks you as it needs them when running an app, and "prunes" permissions away from apps that you do not use often. Lots of apps only need specific permissions if you use specific parts of the app. And apps are much larger (one app does more things) than they were 5-10 years ago. Eg you can use some apps as a camera, but never as a photo editor, and get use out of it by only giving some spe…
This clearly isn't OK. I want to choose between an app that asks for what it needs to work and an app that ask everything it can, before installing it. It's a dark pattern.
The new data safety section lists things that look like permissions as well. Should permissions be clearly listed in the new data safety section? I think it would be more helpful that way.
Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more
#28I don't remember, was the information contained in the permission similar to the information provided as data safety?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/datasafety?id=com.google....
Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more
#29Probably because all apps are now required to target the latest api, which means most permissions are done by user prompts, and not just by downloading the app.
The iPhone has worked like that (to various degrees) for a long time. But Apple still added their privacy label things to tell me if an app is going to try to track my location.
I don’t want to download a clipboard helper of some kind and find out it’s going to ask for my GPS coordinates.
I want to know ahead of time.
Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more
#30> They had implemented that already a while ago, then reverted the behaviour, and now implemented it once again. This is, among many other reasons, why I finally dropped Android after the better part of a decade. The constant A/B/C/D/E testing makes every single thing they put out feel like it's a constant state of beta testing. It's to the point where you don't even know what to expect when you do something as funda…
It's funny how smart yet dumb A/B testing is. On one hand you can intelligently gauge the effect of changes, on the other hand you can push stupid shit since you have that power. How about intelligently designing applications that you yourself want to use? Too hard.
That would require designers to deeply understand system and software engineering, or systems and software engineers to understand design. Funny how that gap keeps on manifesting itself, even though both parties work on the same domain.