Brother Google

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I keep automatic updates turned off on the android devices, location services turned off except when I want them, and little pieces of blue tape over cameras, except when I want to use the cameras.

 

So anyway I was checking the updates on the android pad this morning, and the new chrome browser update adds the wonderful features of--

 

Record audio-- Allows the app to record audio with the microphone. This permission allows the app to record audio at any time without your confirmation.

 

New: Take pictures and videos-- Allows the app to take pictures and videos with the camera. This permission allows the app to use the camera at any time without your confirmation.

 

Why would a person want google to be able to take pictures and video and record audio on their pad or phone, any time google feels like it? Perhaps I'm too ornery to see obvious advantages of such high-tech luxury. Yes, please surveil me google, any time, in any way you see fit. I love it.

[Sam1]

It's part of their predictive search initiative, and the reason chrome was uninstalled on everything I have.

[wewoapsiak]

It's to allow future use of the WebRTC api. The problem is that the permissions camera and record_audio are all encompassing permissions. Don't think this will help much, but: [URL]http://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.permission.html#CAMERA[/URL].
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2

[Moped]

Stopped using Google last year when they came out as anti 2A.  Never used Chrome.  I suspect most of the software companys are anti 2A though.

[wewoapsiak]

A quick look at a handful of mobile browsers, all the most popular versions use at least one of these permissions. Opera Mini and Boat were the two notable ones that don't. If I was to be worried about permissions, read_phone_state combined with internet would be the ones I'd be concerned with. The majority of apps out there use both of those.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2

[hkusp40cal]

Root it and LBE privacy guard it. 

[Randall53]

The day will come when we will stomp them and throw them in the garbage. (don't forget to take out the simms card and burn it first....)

[Sam1]

Root it and LBE privacy guard it.

Never heard of this before, you have a link for the lbe thing?

[FJCrusing]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lbe.security.lite&hl=en

[hipower]

It's sad...I haven't understood a dang word you guys have said here. :squint:

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Google doesn't think it needs permission to do anything.

[RED333]

It's sad...I haven't understood a dang word you guys have said here. :squint:

The very reason I dont have a smartass phone.

[hipower]

The very reason I dont have a smartass phone.

 

You said it better than I could.

[wewoapsiak]

It comes down to trust. Do you trust Google, or any of the popular apps on the market? Yes, if you have the know how and patience you can root your phone. You could then install a custom rom that allows you to control the permissions of apps, but then you're trusting that rom developer not to have any malicious code. Or you could trust and install an app like LBE, which is made by a Chinese developer, and edit the permissions that way. If you're going to have a smart phone, you're going to have to trust someone. Or just get a jitterbug and be done with it.

Sent from the blue lagoon Edited April 21, 2013 by wewoapsiak

[Guest nra37922]

'If it keeps one child safe'...

[Guest Lester Weevils]

A quick look at a handful of mobile browsers, all the most popular versions use at least one of these permissions. Opera Mini and Boat were the two notable ones that don't. If I was to be worried about permissions, read_phone_state combined with internet would be the ones I'd be concerned with. The majority of apps out there use both of those.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2

 

Well, a browser wouldn't be very effective without internet permissions. That one doesn't bother me much. Read phone state might be useful. Access to the gps or gross triangulation would be OK, presuming that the user can globally turn off the service lower down in the OS and the software doesn't have permissions to turn it on at whim. Similarly, access to video and audio might be OK if the user can reliably brick those features "at the source" so that the software only gets a null feed if it happens to misbehave.

 

Maybe the ability to dynamically kill/disable drivers for devices such as gps, camera and mic (possibly others) would be more desirable than messing with the permissions?

 

It comes down to trust. Do you trust Google, or any of the popular apps on the market? Yes, if you have the know how and patience you can root your phone. You could then install a custom rom that allows you to control the permissions of apps, but then you're trusting that rom developer not to have any malicious code. Or you could trust and install an app like LBE, which is made by a Chinese developer, and edit the permissions that way. If you're going to have a smart phone, you're going to have to trust someone. Or just get a jitterbug and be done with it.

Sent from the blue lagoon

 

I'm not brimming over with trust for any company or developer.

 

Dunno why somebody can't just sell you a product, no strings attached, then leave you the hell alone afterwards. What the heck is wrong with that? Software I write, it only runs when the user runs it. It doesn't do any action except when the user tells the software to do it. It doesn't tattle home on the internet. It quits when the user tells it to quit, and its gone from the user's machine if the user deletes it.

 

I have used a couple of meeting softwares for years, which as best I can tell they don't run AT ALL unless I intentionally launch the software, and they are dead after I kill the process. Chat softwares such as messenger are banned or disabled as best I can manage. If I rarely need skype I'll install it, then uninstall it when I don't need it any more, but when it is installed it is "turned off" and disabled as much as possible unless I expect to communicate using skype. If I want a meeting software, I'll look for one that is under my control, not embedded in a browser and "always on" just in case a year from now I might want to use the feature.

 

Life is short and it is a bummer to futz with learning how to root a machine just to gain some control over it. The to-do list will never get done even if that item stays off the to-do list. A shame there doesn't seem to be an OS company that just wants to just sell you something and then leave you the hell alone. One would think maybe there would be a market for that.

[analog_kidd]

Not really pertinent to a smartphone, but on my PC I run Virtual Machines. I only install apps I really need and trust on my actual PC, then anything that could be not so trustworthy gets installed to the VM, which stays powered down if I don't need them. I also set the VM's disks to "non-persistent" so any changes that get made during a session are erased. If I want to install something new, or let the O/S update for patches, I power it off, reset the disks to persistent power it back on and do the installs. Then off it goes again and reset back to non-persistent.

 

VMware Player is free and works great.