I know this doesn't help the average user, but https://exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/ does their own analysis of apps and lists permissions and sensors. You can check here first. There reports are integrated into the Aurora Store.
We can't check the app permissions on Google Play anymore
21–30 of 121 posts
Re: We can't check the app permissions on Google Play anymore
#22Honestly, these days I feel like it's dumb to deploy on a platform you have no control over, unless you have enough money to pay lawyers to get Google's/Apple's attention.
Re: We can't check the app permissions on Google Play anymore
#23I publish both Android and iOS apps regularly, this is just Google getting to feature parity with Apple. Apple had data safety, Google now has it. Apple didn't show permissions, now Google also doesn't. Presumably most people don't really care about permissions anymore.
> Apple didn't have permissions Huh? Apple has always had permissions; Apple calls them "entitlements". Some of them are granted on install (like Game Center or Siri intents); some of them also require explicit user permission (like push notifications or contacts access). What Apple doesn't do is list entitlements in the App Store. This is because users don't generally need to be aware of them; entitlements with sign…
Yup I meant "Apple didn't show permissions". Edited my comment.
Re: We can't check the app permissions on Google Play anymore
#24Honestly, these days I feel like it's dumb to deploy on a platform you have no control over, unless you have enough money to pay lawyers to get Google's/Apple's attention.
I don’t think this comment is relevant to the discussion, which is google removing the permissions list for apps on the play store.
Re: We can't check the app permissions on Google Play anymore
#25It's unfortunate that regulators have largely overlooked privacy in smartphone apps amidst all the other concerns they have over such platforms.
The permissions list on the play store was completely useless from a privacy standpoint. Even power users could to just about nothing with the info.
The situation now where you approve or reject permissions as they are used in the app is vastly better than the original android model of being shown a wall of text with the options to either give away all of your data and security or not install the app.
Re: We can't check the app permissions on Google Play anymore
#26right, since the popup for permissions is in the app when its requested I would like more permissions to be different than all or nothing though. I wish you could segregate contacts. like, if I don't tell people around me that I know a high ranking official, why should a random app just because one of us uploaded our contact list.
That's only for 'dangerous' permissions as defined by Android. As an example: NFC is defined as a 'normal' permission.[0] As far as I'm aware [not an expert here], there's nothing stopping an app developer from updating their app with the ability to steal credit card/passport information (if the card is tapped against the phone). [0] https://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.per...
Credit cards can not be duplicated wirelessly. I’m not familiar with passports but if they can then I’d say that’s a flaw of the cards rather than phone permissions. It’s possible to read nfc cards from quite a distance with a high power reader.
Re: We can't check the app permissions on Google Play anymore
#27right, since the popup for permissions is in the app when its requested I would like more permissions to be different than all or nothing though. I wish you could segregate contacts. like, if I don't tell people around me that I know a high ranking official, why should a random app just because one of us uploaded our contact list.
I want to know if an app will launch itself on device startup, and I can't see that any longer with "data safety". There are other permissions that are now similarly hidden. I appreciate that less tech savvy Android users might benefit from a simplified view, but I wish they'd give the advanced user an option to view details (and, ideally, the ability to reject ANY permission).
Re: We can't check the app permissions on Google Play anymore
#28The dynamic permissions are not a replacement.
Some users would never even install apps that asked for too many static permissions on the Play page.
But now, if an app seems to meet their needs and they aren't sure, some of them will go ahead and install it just to try it out. How much can one run hurt after all? Due to unresolved questions or sunk cost dilemmas, they may even grant dynamic permissions. How much can one run hurt after all?
So this will manipulate a percentage of reluctant users into data-providing users by hiding a reason for their reluctance. I'm inclined to suspect it'll benefit Google's ad impressions business and that's the actual motivation, not "feature parity" with Apple.
Re: We can't check the app permissions on Google Play anymore
#29It's unfortunate that regulators have largely overlooked privacy in smartphone apps amidst all the other concerns they have over such platforms.
The permissions list on the play store was completely useless from a privacy standpoint. Even power users could to just about nothing with the info. The situation now where you approve or reject permissions as they are used in the app is vastly better than the original android model of being shown a wall of text with the options to either give away all of your data and security or not install the app.
> The permissions list on the play store was completely useless from a privacy standpoint. Even power users could to just about nothing with the info.
This is not true. I avoid apps that require unreasonable permissions. I don't expect regular users to know what is reasonable or not, but hiding this information would definitely make installation process less convenient for me. Then again, I no longer use Google Play store and I install very few apps anyway, so maybe I'm not exactly their target user.
Re: We can't check the app permissions on Google Play anymore
#30It's unfortunate that regulators have largely overlooked privacy in smartphone apps amidst all the other concerns they have over such platforms.
The permissions list on the play store was completely useless from a privacy standpoint. Even power users could to just about nothing with the info. The situation now where you approve or reject permissions as they are used in the app is vastly better than the original android model of being shown a wall of text with the options to either give away all of your data and security or not install the app.
The permissions list allowed you to make a better-informed decision before you download the app, even though you can't change what permissions an app requires you could shop around for apps without specific permissions. This was never incompatible with ad-hoc approving or rejecting permissions either.