> Some users would never even install apps that asked for too many static permissions on the Play page.
This, so much!
Like 90% of the apps on Play ask for an insanely excessive amount of permissions.
It was the #1 indicator for sorting out garbage apps.
Example: Some time ago I needed a kitchen timer app (stock one had some issue). The great majority of them wanted permissions like contacts, access to my files, GPS location, and on top of it internet to upload all of this probably. Even though a kitchen timer shouldn't require any private data at all!
Now think about this:
Even if you're asked by Android before it actually gets the permissions, why would you WANT to run code from someone who does such shady stuff as having a kitchen timer require access to private data? Won't those people probably take any opportunity they can get to do shady stuff with things for which Android doesn't require permissions yet? And even if they don't - isn't it likely that their app just doesn't work properly and has a lot of bugs because they don't care about the user at all?
And this isn't just such utility apps. It's basically ALL apps which are flooded with this garbage.
What Google did here to me personally is the last nail in Android's coffin. I cannot acquire software anymore like this.
Problem with free software is that very often good programs are orphaned by original authors (looking at andOTP), and that creates more forks with usually even shorter lifetime. It would be wonderful to have some sort of organization for essential applications that provide crucial applications, but only with very limited feature set and only required updates for new Android versions.
> Example: Some time ago I needed a kitchen timer app (stock one had some issue). The great majority of them wanted permissions like contacts, access to my files, GPS location, and on top of it internet to upload all of this probably. Even though a kitchen timer shouldn't require any private data at all!
That's completely legitimate. It needs those permissions to tell your guests when dinner is ready, where it is being served, and what is being served.
More seriously though, I bought a tablet many years back which shipped with a simple word game that had insane permissions. Among them was access to contacts. When I pointed that out to people they would claim it was required for multi-player support. When I pointed out that one could add the contacts manually, most of the people thought I was insane even though this was at a time when people usually added contacts to desktop applications manually. They didn't understand that some people viewed it as impolite to share contacts of others without their permission (never mind the privacy implications). They didn't understand that most people would only play the game in single-user mode because it was a single play game with a "multi-player" mode tacked on. The multi-player mode was literally tacked on to harvest marketing data.
I've never seen that in any menu or prompt. I don't think Android has this. Which is a shame bc i mostly use offline apps and would love to know if an app is all offline
Understandably, I don't think Google cares about the offline use of their OS. It doesn't align with their business interests
This, so much!
Like 90% of the apps on Play ask for an insanely excessive amount of permissions.
It was the #1 indicator for sorting out garbage apps.
Example: Some time ago I needed a kitchen timer app (stock one had some issue). The great majority of them wanted permissions like contacts, access to my files, GPS location, and on top of it internet to upload all of this probably. Even though a kitchen timer shouldn't require any private data at all!
Now think about this:
Even if you're asked by Android before it actually gets the permissions, why would you WANT to run code from someone who does such shady stuff as having a kitchen timer require access to private data? Won't those people probably take any opportunity they can get to do shady stuff with things for which Android doesn't require permissions yet? And even if they don't - isn't it likely that their app just doesn't work properly and has a lot of bugs because they don't care about the user at all?
And this isn't just such utility apps. It's basically ALL apps which are flooded with this garbage.
What Google did here to me personally is the last nail in Android's coffin. I cannot acquire software anymore like this.