[vi-android] Google changes app permissions info
- From: Quentin Christensen <quentin.christensen@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: vi-android@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 18:01:08 +1000
Hi everyone,
If you have downloaded or updated anything from the play store over the
past day, you may have noticed that Google has changed how it displays
permissions for apps. Instead of listing each and every permission that
an app needs, it has created broad groups and lists those - eg "Photos /
media / files" simply says "Uses one or more of: files on the device
such as images, videos, or audio, the device's external storage". They
also assume now that most apps need access to the internet and don't
bother telling you when an app has that permission on the standard
install screen.
This is massively bad news for privacy and security and a huge backward
step as far as I can see. Half the problem with apps and what they have
access to at present is caused by most apps asking for too many
permissions and instead of making this intrusion more prominent, Google
have capitulated to this greed by hiding the information from users.
You can still see the permissions an app needs though, go to it's page
on the play store and scroll down to "Permissions: View details", where
you can see the list of permissions requested.
Once I figure out how to complain to Google (for such a big company,
they can be hard to contact easily), I will certainly do so!
Regards
Quentin.
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