Newb wants to know why apps invade privacy, even this forums?

[Coupe]

Seriously, even the app for this forum wants acces to my phone number and even the numbers of those that I call? Why is that? Why is it that app developers insist on being an invasion of my privacy? I cannot accept that it is "required" for the app to work in any app.
I can understand why a voicemail app needs access, but most of the others???

I seriously don't get why users are not up in arms about this, you can't download most of the apps in the market, from the 10+ silly sports horns or weather radar without giving away things that most of us worked at staying away from on our pc's during the last decade and I can only guess that people just don't bother to read the permissions during the installation ?

I would not be as concerned if I could modify the permissions of an app after install or block certain information from being visable to ANYONE, but I cannot. I have a phone with very little apps on it because of this, and it really feels like a bait-n-switch by Verizon and to be honest most of the droid community, I did not find any obvious outrage on the forums about this, but I find that the "free app for this forum" OS just as guilty! Who wants my info from this forum and what do they want to do with it?


I know that I will see posts claiming that's just how it is" or "what do you want for free"? I do not accept that, and you should not either. Complacency is no justification.

Can someone with more experience tell me what I can do with my phone to prevent invasive spyware issues?

What can I do to actually own my phone and take back my privacey?

[guidot]

I'm sorry that you feel this way about apps. Most apps need to read phone state so they can connect to the 3G/4G network.

I have located a very good guide on how to protect yourself at Androidforums.com: here

Good luck!

[JuniorJays]

I'm sorry that you feel this way about apps. Most apps need to read phone state so they can connect to the 3G/4G network.

I have located a very good guide on how to protect yourself at Androidforums.com: here

Good luck!

Exactally its just the way it works. I'm sure most ios or Windows phone 7 apps would say the same thing. If your worried about viruses stay on the top apps of the market, or ones recommend here.

[Coupe]

So blackberry is the only one that has this figured out? I don't think so.

You cannot convince me that every app requires access to "phone calls" and "personal information" to function. That's just not true.

So, have either of you created apps? Can you explain why some good apps "require no special permissions" and bad apps need access to everything to sound like a "sports horn?"

[gflam]

A lot of them sounds worse then they are for instance my app boot managers permissions currently are

Network communication-which is just needed so we can fetch the files boot manager needs to function like busybox

Your personal information-this one is actually in the next update and currently needed but we are going to have the ability to sync your call logs and sms between your ROMs and you can choose which ROMs will sync

Storage-so we can work on your sdcard

Phone calls-this is the read phone state one need to know if your phone has data so we know if we can contact the server or not

System tools-allows us to keep your phone awake during an install

Network communication-there's a second one for google license verification library

Hardware controls-vibrate notification when install is complete

Your accounts-used in checking the license to see if your email has purchased a copy

So basically what I'm getting at is a lot of the permissions in my opinion sound scarier then what they're actually used for but the thing is they can be scary as well but in most cases they're not. Basically just be smart check the apps rating and download count if it has a low download country be cautious and if the rating is bad look for something else or just read the reviews and see why the rating is bad.

Things like this forum using tapatalk obviously should be trusted its well known and comes from a big developer the permissions it has are just scarier sounding then what they actually are for.

Another thing you can try is email the dev if the app seems sketchy and ask about the permissions if you don't get a reply you might want to stay away

Sent from my evo 3d at 1.8ghz

[gflam]

Feel free to ask me anything else I have a lot of experience with writing apps now it's all I do ha

Sent from my evo 3d at 1.8ghz

[JuniorJays]

First off all phone OS need the same permissions every one. The reason an app would need permission to your phone is to pause any sound from playing while on the phone.

[JuniorJays]

Feel free to ask me anything else I have a lot of experience with writing apps now it's all I do ha

Sent from my evo 3d at 1.8ghz

He beat me too it nice write up, I'm sure it will be very helpful to him

[metalspring]

arent there actually apps in the market you can use to help restrict apps from having certain permissions (kind of like how superuser works on miui.us roms?)

[gflam]

Yea things like privacy blocker by x can do that but i've heard some bad reviews on them since they like decompile the app and remove perms and what not. Not sure how it works completely but if it were just removing the perm from the manifest that would be really bad and would cause force closes.