Android Q will kill clipboard manager apps in the name of privacy • Hacker News Board

Re: Android Q will kill clipboard manager apps in the name of privacy

#41

Post by Ultramanoid » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 3:02 AM UTC

chopin wrote: post #25

Ultramanoid wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Applications require permissions to run. Many require internet permission although it makes no sense. For instance all Google keyboards have internet permission. And most others. That something that can record and transmit every single thing one types has that permission, to me, seems insane and I certainly will use only keyboards that do not have such asinine requirement. Edit : https://fixitalready.eff.org/android/…

Looked up, thanks. Seems you can't grant or revoke that permission. I don't understand why having it at all if you cannot change it.

I use my own system, based on LineageOS [1], which comes with settings to block internet permission on any application. It's one of LineageOS' features. ( On top of that I root my devices and use AFWall+ [2] which also creates a configurable firewall with iptables. )

[1] https://lineageos.org/

[2] https://f-droid.org/en/packages/dev.ukanth.ufirewall/

Re: Android Q will kill clipboard manager apps in the name of privacy

#42

Post by Ultramanoid » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 5:55 AM UTC

Klathmon wrote: post #24

Ultramanoid wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to numbers of downloads of clipboard managers, it's probably much higher than that. But the reasoning doesn't stand. Like I said, they could remove all phony Chrome clones with massive analytics and calls home, of which there are dozens, with read and write storage permissions, internet permission, etc, the list goes on and on. And say only Chrome is allowed, or vetted browsers from known vendors, like Mozi…

I'm sorry, but I think even saying 0.1% of users use a clipboard manager is way overestimating it. The top clipboard manager apps have like 500k installs. Android had 2.7 billion users in 2017. If we assume that the Android install base hasn't grown and that the total base of clipboard managers is 10x larger, we still only get to 0.18% of users...

Clipper [1] alone has over a million installations. Others as you say have 500k, it all amounts to millions of users of clipboard managers specifically labelled as such. Add other applications which couldn't work without a clipboard monitoring feature ( KDE Connect has been mentioned already, translation applications, text and code editors, the list goes on... ) and you jump to tens of millions if not hundreds of millions.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.rojekti.cl...

Re: Android Q will kill clipboard manager apps in the name of privacy

#43

Post by Ultramanoid » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 6:30 AM UTC

chopin wrote: post #25

Ultramanoid wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Applications require permissions to run. Many require internet permission although it makes no sense. For instance all Google keyboards have internet permission. And most others. That something that can record and transmit every single thing one types has that permission, to me, seems insane and I certainly will use only keyboards that do not have such asinine requirement. Edit : https://fixitalready.eff.org/android/…

Looked up, thanks. Seems you can't grant or revoke that permission. I don't understand why having it at all if you cannot change it.

Well, one use it has is to know when to stay away from something that requires it despite not needing it. Do not install such application.

Re: Android Q will kill clipboard manager apps in the name of privacy

#44

Post by londons_explore » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 7:14 AM UTC

chopin wrote: post #26

londons_explore wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even without Internet permission there are easy ways to exfiltrate critical data. For example, the app could just open the browser set to http://myapp.com/?secretdata=Ultramanoids_password How are you going to stop that? Have the browser stop and ask before loading the web page?

Wouldn't that be visible?

Yes, but by then your data is already exfiltrated.

There are also a bunch of ways of doing it in non-visible ways by using API's of other apps

Re: Android Q will kill clipboard manager apps in the name of privacy

#45

Post by calciphus » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 7:23 AM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #30

ignoramous wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems like Google deliberately misses the point in all privacy related changes Harsh considering the fact that Google has been dedicating resources to privacy and took important steps to that affect with Android O [0] and Android P [1] and now with Android Q. They hosted a invite-only-industry-experts conference to understand the implications of wide-spread security and privacy issues with Android [2][3]. [0] ht…

Doesn’t it seem strange that they needed to hire “industry experts” 10 years into Android’s existence instead of thinking in these terms from day one?

Not to defend a giant corporate entity, but can you think of any major operating system that prevents its users from giving away their information to programs they voluntarily install?

Google's goal isn't to prevent themselves from getting your info, but to prevent random 3rd parties from tricking you out of it. That would seem like a high bar to set a decade ago.