6 ms·

This is why on-demand permissions are one of the best features of Android 6.0. Don't want Netflix to access your microphone? No problem--don't let it.

tgb 11y ago
Does it also allow a "popup request for each use" option? Seems like the right option for the Netflix hotline support feature.
- aiiane 11y ago
  No, but you can go into the phone settings and re-enable a permission for an app if you change your mind.
  - pki 11y ago
    Aren't privacyguard's actions Ask / Never / Always?
    - andrewaylett 11y ago
      Most of them, yes. There are a couple that are just on/off, like wake locks.
maccard 11y ago
And remember. iOS has had this since its inception
- rogerbinns 11y ago
  BlackBerry had it too. There was a tree of permissions (broad categories at the top, specifics in the leaves) and you could set permissions to deny, allow or ask each time.
- JohnTHaller 11y ago
  No, it didn't. iOS originally gave apps access to just about everything except background execution without any warning. At the time Android had the superior permissions model, with each app telling you what it needed at install and you being in control of whether or not you wanted to install it with that information. Older iOS apps had access to your photos, your contacts, and other stuff and could use it with no warning to you. As a result of early privacy breaches, later releases of iOS added per-function permissions on demand, leap-frogging Android in terms of permissions functionality. Android has had some level of per-function permissions on demand in the works since Android 4.4 -- and you could use it in unofficial Android builds like CyanogenMod by turning off individual permissions for apps -- but the feature only finally made it into official builds in Android 6.0. It also got it properly in the API and manifest of apps as well so they can ask permissions as they need them... like the Facebook app needing access to your photos when you select to attach a photo to a post.
  - threeseed 11y ago
    Apple started adding location services permissions 5 years ago. Android 6.0 has only just been released. Whichever way you look at it it's pretty unacceptable that it's taken so long for Android to implement this.
    - yareally 11y ago
      > "Apple started adding location services permissions 5 years ago. Android 6.0 has only just been released". Location permissions have been in Android since the version 1.0 of the API. http://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.permission.html#ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION http://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.perm...
      - threeseed 11y ago
        But that is the permissions that only appear when you download the app from the store. I am talking about the API permissions e.g. "the dialog box that pops up confirming you want to allow this app to read your location". That is the point of this whole discussion right ?
- Eldarrion 11y ago
  And then they waited until 3GS to have multimedia messaging. Let's not argue the benefits of one OS over another and derail the discussion into a fan service announcement.
  - digi_owl 11y ago
    And today will silently redirect messaging onto their own system, that will swallow any incoming messages if you ever dear leave their ecosystem. I really really wish they had never gotten into the phone business.
    - voltagex_ 11y ago
      I dislike some of Apple's actions too, but let's remain factual. http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/11/new-apple-support-page-will-deactivate-imessage-for-your-phone-number/ http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/11/new-apple-support-page-...
- kalleboo 11y ago
  And remember. Java/J2ME phones had this since their inception.
  - xnzakg 11y ago
    Java phones even supported asking for internet access... which is pretty much taken for granted now, and GPlay doesn't even show that an app needs it.
    - barrkel 11y ago
      If you could deny access to an application with no good intrinsic reason to go online (eg single player game) then you would probably block ads too, and that's not in Google's interest.
    - ATsch 11y ago
      For HTTP requests, yes. Using sockets requires the "Full network permissions" permission.
  - tormeh 11y ago
    I was behind the curve on smartphones for a long time. Luckily my dumbphone had 3G and Java, so I had Google Maps and Facebook on my dumbphone... with multitasking! Slow as hell, but the dumbphone=>smartphone transition was more gradual than most people realize - It was mostly about better UI and hardware; the basic software was already there.
    - digi_owl 11y ago
      Frankly many "dumbphones" could rival iPhone when it launched, yet the press went gaga about smartphone for the masses (because Apple made it, natch). The basic problem was that USA was lagging the mobile world severely, so when the likes of iPhone shipped over there it seemed like a revolution for that insular market. I just wish the wider (tech) press didn't so much unquestionably parrot the US press.
      - 11y ago
- geofft 11y ago
  As of iOS 5, contacts were stored in a world-writable SQLite database. An app that corrupted this database would break contacts for all apps, causing some apps to crash or misbehave, and no permissions were required. (I ran across this on my personal iPad on an app I was developing, after a fit of overconfidence regarding SQLite encryption and whitelisting vs. blacklisting.)
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
lucb1e 11y ago
Got this via Cyanogenmod already on 4.4 and I use it all the time. Not just for permissions by the way, Privacy Guard can also prevent wake locks and auto start permissions. That's a serious battery life saver.
- barbs 11y ago
  Thanks for this, I didn't realise you could do this in CM. You can also check when the permissions were being used. For the Netflix app I noticed the "record audio" permission had never been used, but I've set it to explicitly ask me if it tries to use it.
- kachnuv_ocasek 11y ago
  I use this extensively myself, but the one problem that I'm facing is that it makes some applications unstable. Usually, I just uninstall them as I'd rather sacrifice my comfort than my security and privacy.
- modeless 11y ago
  Android 6.0 does those things for you too. (Doze and App Standby)
  - conceit 11y ago
    sounds like cm is used as a testing channel for new features.
- eklavya 11y ago
  I used to believe that and installed CM 12.1 on my phone only to find out that the restrictions don't really work. Whatsapp was able to read my messages (automatic phone verify) when I had disabled the access. Digging around I found out this is the case even with XPrivacy (there are open issues on github) which is supposed to be more extensive. There are some situations when the blocks aren't enforced at all (like some native calls). I got a nexus 5x, android 6 permissions feature actually works.
digi_owl 11y ago
Just sad that Google has lumped the permissions into categories, and also put a bunch of them into "safe". Yeah yeah, clueless aunt Tillie will flip something and complain that its broken. But persisting this way means that you (Google and anyone agreeing with their stance) are breeding whole generations of Tillies.
- mtgx 11y ago
  Indeed. Six categories seems like a pretty small number.
- emsy 11y ago
  iOS has this for years without a problem, so Google has to find a better reason why they screwed this up for so long.
  - nitrogen 11y ago
    And before iOS, J2ME phones had very fine-grained permissions (though it was usually the carrier that controlled them).
    - digi_owl 11y ago
      Depends on where in the world you lived...
gedrap 11y ago
FirefoxOS (I was using v1.3, not sure about earlier or later versions) did the same, it was pretty neat. It's really nice that they are doing it from the very early days, not waiting for their app marketplace to become bigger.

tgb 11y ago

Does it also allow a "popup request for each use" option? Seems like the right option for the Netflix hotline support feature.

aiiane 11y ago
No, but you can go into the phone settings and re-enable a permission for an app if you change your mind.
- pki 11y ago
  Aren't privacyguard's actions Ask / Never / Always?
  - andrewaylett 11y ago
    Most of them, yes. There are a couple that are just on/off, like wake locks.

maccard 11y ago

And remember. iOS has had this since its inception

rogerbinns 11y ago
BlackBerry had it too. There was a tree of permissions (broad categories at the top, specifics in the leaves) and you could set permissions to deny, allow or ask each time.
JohnTHaller 11y ago
No, it didn't. iOS originally gave apps access to just about everything except background execution without any warning. At the time Android had the superior permissions model, with each app telling you what it needed at install and you being in control of whether or not you wanted to install it with that information. Older iOS apps had access to your photos, your contacts, and other stuff and could use it with no warning to you. As a result of early privacy breaches, later releases of iOS added per-function permissions on demand, leap-frogging Android in terms of permissions functionality. Android has had some level of per-function permissions on demand in the works since Android 4.4 -- and you could use it in unofficial Android builds like CyanogenMod by turning off individual permissions for apps -- but the feature only finally made it into official builds in Android 6.0. It also got it properly in the API and manifest of apps as well so they can ask permissions as they need them... like the Facebook app needing access to your photos when you select to attach a photo to a post.
- threeseed 11y ago
  Apple started adding location services permissions 5 years ago. Android 6.0 has only just been released. Whichever way you look at it it's pretty unacceptable that it's taken so long for Android to implement this.
  - yareally 11y ago
    > "Apple started adding location services permissions 5 years ago. Android 6.0 has only just been released". Location permissions have been in Android since the version 1.0 of the API. http://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.permission.html#ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION http://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.perm...
    - threeseed 11y ago
      But that is the permissions that only appear when you download the app from the store. I am talking about the API permissions e.g. "the dialog box that pops up confirming you want to allow this app to read your location". That is the point of this whole discussion right ?
Eldarrion 11y ago
And then they waited until 3GS to have multimedia messaging. Let's not argue the benefits of one OS over another and derail the discussion into a fan service announcement.
- digi_owl 11y ago
  And today will silently redirect messaging onto their own system, that will swallow any incoming messages if you ever dear leave their ecosystem. I really really wish they had never gotten into the phone business.
  - voltagex_ 11y ago
    I dislike some of Apple's actions too, but let's remain factual. http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/11/new-apple-support-page-will-deactivate-imessage-for-your-phone-number/ http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/11/new-apple-support-page-...
kalleboo 11y ago
And remember. Java/J2ME phones had this since their inception.
- xnzakg 11y ago
  Java phones even supported asking for internet access... which is pretty much taken for granted now, and GPlay doesn't even show that an app needs it.
  - barrkel 11y ago
    If you could deny access to an application with no good intrinsic reason to go online (eg single player game) then you would probably block ads too, and that's not in Google's interest.
  - ATsch 11y ago
    For HTTP requests, yes. Using sockets requires the "Full network permissions" permission.
- tormeh 11y ago
  I was behind the curve on smartphones for a long time. Luckily my dumbphone had 3G and Java, so I had Google Maps and Facebook on my dumbphone... with multitasking! Slow as hell, but the dumbphone=>smartphone transition was more gradual than most people realize - It was mostly about better UI and hardware; the basic software was already there.
  - digi_owl 11y ago
    Frankly many "dumbphones" could rival iPhone when it launched, yet the press went gaga about smartphone for the masses (because Apple made it, natch). The basic problem was that USA was lagging the mobile world severely, so when the likes of iPhone shipped over there it seemed like a revolution for that insular market. I just wish the wider (tech) press didn't so much unquestionably parrot the US press.
    - 11y ago
geofft 11y ago
As of iOS 5, contacts were stored in a world-writable SQLite database. An app that corrupted this database would break contacts for all apps, causing some apps to crash or misbehave, and no permissions were required. (I ran across this on my personal iPad on an app I was developing, after a fit of overconfidence regarding SQLite encryption and whitelisting vs. blacklisting.)

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

lucb1e 11y ago

Got this via Cyanogenmod already on 4.4 and I use it all the time. Not just for permissions by the way, Privacy Guard can also prevent wake locks and auto start permissions. That's a serious battery life saver.

barbs 11y ago
Thanks for this, I didn't realise you could do this in CM. You can also check when the permissions were being used. For the Netflix app I noticed the "record audio" permission had never been used, but I've set it to explicitly ask me if it tries to use it.
kachnuv_ocasek 11y ago
I use this extensively myself, but the one problem that I'm facing is that it makes some applications unstable. Usually, I just uninstall them as I'd rather sacrifice my comfort than my security and privacy.
modeless 11y ago
Android 6.0 does those things for you too. (Doze and App Standby)
- conceit 11y ago
  sounds like cm is used as a testing channel for new features.
eklavya 11y ago
I used to believe that and installed CM 12.1 on my phone only to find out that the restrictions don't really work. Whatsapp was able to read my messages (automatic phone verify) when I had disabled the access. Digging around I found out this is the case even with XPrivacy (there are open issues on github) which is supposed to be more extensive. There are some situations when the blocks aren't enforced at all (like some native calls). I got a nexus 5x, android 6 permissions feature actually works.

digi_owl 11y ago

Just sad that Google has lumped the permissions into categories, and also put a bunch of them into "safe". Yeah yeah, clueless aunt Tillie will flip something and complain that its broken. But persisting this way means that you (Google and anyone agreeing with their stance) are breeding whole generations of Tillies.

mtgx 11y ago
Indeed. Six categories seems like a pretty small number.
emsy 11y ago
iOS has this for years without a problem, so Google has to find a better reason why they screwed this up for so long.
- nitrogen 11y ago
  And before iOS, J2ME phones had very fine-grained permissions (though it was usually the carrier that controlled them).
  - digi_owl 11y ago
    Depends on where in the world you lived...

gedrap 11y ago

FirefoxOS (I was using v1.3, not sure about earlier or later versions) did the same, it was pretty neat. It's really nice that they are doing it from the very early days, not waiting for their app marketplace to become bigger.