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Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more

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Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more

#71

Post by fartcannon »

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #56
bornfreddy wrote: post #17

LineageOS. Or Murena, if you can't be bothered to install it yourself. And then use f-droid, or if it's not available there, Aurora store. As seen on computers, OS is too important to be left to companies - if you value your freedom of choice and privacy, that is.

I am very much fed up and ready to get on board with you but one thing that holds me back is photo quality. Nowadays camera sensors are only half the story and most of the iphone-like photo quality is achieved in software. Have we reached a point where non-OEM apps can deliver something comparable to the market expectations from big manufacturers? I am ok with narrow combinations e.g. if you use app X on Hardware Y y…

This brings up a slightly tangential question I have. Is other peoples photography like other peoples dreams?

In that no one cares about it unless they're in it.

Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more

#72

Post by collaborative »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #22
hbn wrote: post #4

> 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.

All the A/B tests I have done point to one conclusion: assume users are illiterate and have an attention span of 5 seconds

Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more

#73

Post by worble »

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #56
bornfreddy wrote: post #17

LineageOS. Or Murena, if you can't be bothered to install it yourself. And then use f-droid, or if it's not available there, Aurora store. As seen on computers, OS is too important to be left to companies - if you value your freedom of choice and privacy, that is.

I am very much fed up and ready to get on board with you but one thing that holds me back is photo quality. Nowadays camera sensors are only half the story and most of the iphone-like photo quality is achieved in software. Have we reached a point where non-OEM apps can deliver something comparable to the market expectations from big manufacturers? I am ok with narrow combinations e.g. if you use app X on Hardware Y y…

>one thing that holds me back is photo quality

But... why? I use open camera. It works. It takes pictures. Those pictures look alright, pretty damn good even. I certainly don't look at them and go "well blimey I just can't tell what this picture is meant to be".

Whatsapp ends up destroying the quality when I send them to friends anyway.

Like, maybe if you've got a huge instagram following and a patreon drawing in money based off that or something? I dunno, it's just one of those things I really can't wrap my head around, so long as I've got a picture I'm happy.

Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more

#74

Post by uranium »

simonsarris wrote: post #2

That 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…

One of the permissions I'm really reluctant to grant is "run at startup". As far as I know, that's granted at install time, not prompted for, and there's no way to disallow it. Is there now going to be no way to know if I'm granting that or not?

Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more

#75

Post by kuschku »

mdp2021 wrote: post #50
codethief wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Network access, for example

Since when network access is standard? Access to filesystem is not, use of hardware components but for display and speaker is not, internet access is not... Maybe you are referring to the exploitation of "intents" to exchange with networking enabled applications?

Network access requires no user approval. The only place you could find it before granting it to an app was via the permissions list in the play store.

Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more

#76

Post by LightG »

Someone just make an open source app store which solves this.

Can't be trusted to these idiots / money-hungry project managers / behemoths * delete as appropriate *

Sorry, maybe there is one but I've not investigated and it's .... rant time.

Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more

#77

Post by uranium »

kuschku wrote: post #75
mdp2021 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since when network access is standard? Access to filesystem is not, use of hardware components but for display and speaker is not, internet access is not... Maybe you are referring to the exploitation of "intents" to exchange with networking enabled applications?

Network access requires no user approval. The only place you could find it before granting it to an app was via the permissions list in the play store.

Same with "run at startup" and some other important ones; there's no way to deny it once installed.

Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more

#78

Post by jfim »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #16
simonsarris wrote: post #2

That 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…

> That 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. No no no no no, this is a total catastrophe. I can't understand how it got implemented at all. I just missed a birthday notification from my calendar app because Android "helpfully" removed the app's ability to create notifications! After all, I hadn't opened the calendar ap…

Yeah that feature is complete garbage. The intent is laudable (reducing permissions for unused apps) but the implementation of getting a notification every once in a while with a ton of permissions removed is awful.

Combined with the fact that Google seems to be sending more notifications for all kinds of junk nowadays makes it even easier to fail to notice that.

Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more

#79

Post by aftergibson »

bornfreddy wrote: post #17

LineageOS. Or Murena, if you can't be bothered to install it yourself. And then use f-droid, or if it's not available there, Aurora store. As seen on computers, OS is too important to be left to companies - if you value your freedom of choice and privacy, that is.

Or GrapheneOS with sandboxed Play Store.

Re: Tell HN: Google does not list application permissions in the Play Store any more

#80

Post by retox »

codethief wrote: post #32
dotancohen wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are standard permissions in this context?

Network access, for example

This change was when I stopped downloading from the Play store. Prior to that you could easily see that the compass or flashlight app you were going to install needed network access, something that set off alarm bells given the state of malware back then.
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