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Re:I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report by syshum on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @03:32AM (#16965201)
>>especially considering the recent FB Android app revelations about lots and lots of things the phone was doing that nobody realised,

No lots of people realized them, and lots of people have been talking about them for years just no one really payed attention until now.

When you install FB or any other app you get a nice list of things the App is allowed to do, if you do not want the app to do those things you should not install the app.

The problem is most people simply ignore this list and click "install" with out questioning why a Flashlight app would need access to your call history...

With Android the user is in control, Some/Most people can not handle that responsibility.

For a person that is concerned about privacy, Using facebook at all seems counter intuitive...

For me while I do supports Apple's take on user privacy, I do not support their Business Practices of being rabidly anti-repair, anti-ownership, and anti-consumer. It is my device not Apple's, the the fact that Apple wants completely control over a device have I bought from them for about $1,000 is a non-starter for me, I can control my privacy in other ways I do not need my phone OS to do that for me.

Re:I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report by hellofunk on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @05:34AM (#16965624)
> When you install FB or any other app you get a nice list of things the App is allowed to do, if you do not want the app to do those things you should not install the app.

This is actually a fairly recent change to Android. It did not used to provide you with these choices. It demonstrates that user privacy is a bit of an afterthought with Android.

For Apple, these kinds of user choices have been there since the start.

Re:I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report by syshum on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @06:22AM (#16965825)
>>This is actually a fairly recent change to Android

if by "recent" you mean "almost since the beginning" then sure.

The app permissions system has gotten better over time, more fine grained, ability to deny permissions while still install the app, and other features, but the basic list of "if you install this app it gets X access" has been there for a long long time, v2 or v3 if I remember correctly

Re:I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report by saagarjha on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @06:44AM (#16965928)
The ability of accepting/rejecting specific permissions is from Android 6.
Re:I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report by syshum on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @08:35PM (#16973111)
Yes but my comment was "Displays a list of permissions" not allow you to pick which permissions

I do not believe the first version if iOS has the ability to reject specific permissions either.

Re:I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report by saagarjha on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @08:42PM (#16973143)
The first version of iOS didn't have apps, so this wasn't an issue…
Re:I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report by efdee on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @06:14AM (#16965787)
I've been using Android since 2.x and I sell to remember it has always been like this. The recent change iirc is being able to decline a certain privilege and still use the app.
Re:I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report by hellofunk on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @09:02AM (#16966660)
No, only Android 6 and later has provided proper user permissions [0] :

> You declare that your app needs a permission by listing the permission in the app manifest and then requesting that the user approve each permission at runtime (on Android 6.0 and higher).

> Beginning with Android 6.0 (API level 23), users can revoke permissions from any app at any time

[0] https://developer.android.com/training/permissions/requestin...

Re:I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report by efdee on Saturday May 05, 2018 @06:31AM (#17001211)
It got better in Android 6.0 but it was as described long before that.
Re:I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report by saagarjha on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @06:44AM (#16965921)
Yeah, they'd show you a list of a dozen things that the app was going to use and you basically just tapped the "accept" button because you wanted the app to have access to your photos except now it has access to your contacts, location history, notification center, and firstborn child. Android Marshmallow brought improvements in this area, though.
Re:I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report by syshum on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @08:36PM (#16973116)
Yes an a responsible person that downloaded a photo app that requested access to "your contacts, location history, notification center, and firstborn child" would choose not to install it.

If you continue to install those apps you only have yourself to blame IMO

Re:I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report by saagarjha on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @08:43PM (#16973155)
But on Android pretty much any app does this. Just look at what Google Photos needs: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...
Re:I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report by syshum on Thursday May 03, 2018 @07:43PM (#16990993)
Using a Core Android App developed by Google, that used to be a part of ASOP, and it required to be installed on all Play Store Eligible Android Devices is not a good example of "Pretty much any app does this"

I have all kinds of apps that do not do this, only asking for permissions they need

Re:I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report by efdee on Saturday May 05, 2018 @06:32AM (#17001213)
Which is exactly what the comment was talking about.