Flutterby™! : Looking at the permissions the upgrades

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Looking at the permissions the upgrades

2013-11-22 16:21:06.009419+00 by Dan Lyke 3 comments

Looking at the permissions the upgrades of various pre-installed apps on my phone want, and realizing I don't trust my phone any more.

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2013-11-22 16:47:38.204709+00 by: meuon

I stopped at my Nokia N900 running Maemo. I treat my glorious Samsung Note III running Android as a hostile untrusted device tracking/reporting everything it can.

#Comment Re: made: 2013-11-22 16:50:44.012056+00 by: Jack William Bell

Several times now I have started to install an application, read the permissions it was asking for, had a "WTF? Why would it need that?" moment, and then cancelled the install.

This includes apps I really wanted. Scroom! (It's one word you know.)

#Comment Re: made: 2013-11-22 18:05:40.850923+00 by: markd

Sometimes the permissions needed cast a wider net because the OS is stupid or the api is poorly designed.

Like on iOS, to get access to someone's images, they need to grant permission for their location (since the images have gps locations baked into them). For my app's use of the photo library, I have no need nor want of their location. An image scrubbed of location data would be perfect. But alas, my users are presented with a scary "markd wants to see your location and stalk you" choice and then I have support issues when their slideshows don't run.