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My copy of Uber just updated and it doesn't seem to be requesting any of these permissions. I'm on Marshmallow, and on the permissions page these permissions a

by readams 11y ago

My copy of Uber just updated and it doesn't seem to be requesting any of these permissions. I'm on Marshmallow, and on the permissions page these permissions are not there. Version 3.98.2 of Uber. It's possible that these permissions are used in some obscure place in the app. With the new permissions system, you can progressively request permissions when you need them, so it's possible it will request these at some point in the future, but the app seems to run OK without them. I also disabled access to contacts, which the app does request for some reason.

sghodas 11y ago
Not 100% sure, but I think the access to contacts is so that you can split ride fares with other people.
- JoshTriplett 11y ago
  > Not 100% sure, but I think the access to contacts is so that you can split ride fares with other people. There's a standard intent to select a contact for purposes like that, and then the app only gets access to the information of that contact. Apps requesting access to contacts get all contacts.
  - rajivm 11y ago
    It's actually probably so you can autocomplete a contact as a destination address for your Uber. The same is true in Maps for navigation. Unfortunately UX wins over privacy so launching an intent to pick a contact probably wasn't as elegant as using a unified autocomplete field.
    - 0xmohit 11y ago
      Aha! So maybe they need a variety of permissions in order to apply machine learning so as to enhance the UX.
jakub_g 11y ago
When you scroll to the bottom on Uber's play store page it displays this for me: http://m.imgur.com/ndfjQWv http://m.imgur.com/ndfjQWv They request 'running apps' only from this particular subgroup. Notice the wording on the original screenshot: 'one or more of'. TLDR they don't request browsing history, the Android permissions screen on update is confusing
- readams 11y ago
  When I go to that page I see the "retrieve running apps" permission under a category "Other." It would appear that I cannot disable the "Other" category in the app permission configuration. EDIT: There's another comment in the thread that indicates that this retrieve running apps permission actually doesn't do anything on Lollipop+: it just returns the app's own windows. Which would explain why it was moved to the "Other" category.

by readams 11y ago

sghodas 11y ago

Not 100% sure, but I think the access to contacts is so that you can split ride fares with other people.

JoshTriplett 11y ago
> Not 100% sure, but I think the access to contacts is so that you can split ride fares with other people. There's a standard intent to select a contact for purposes like that, and then the app only gets access to the information of that contact. Apps requesting access to contacts get all contacts.
- rajivm 11y ago
  It's actually probably so you can autocomplete a contact as a destination address for your Uber. The same is true in Maps for navigation. Unfortunately UX wins over privacy so launching an intent to pick a contact probably wasn't as elegant as using a unified autocomplete field.
  - 0xmohit 11y ago
    Aha! So maybe they need a variety of permissions in order to apply machine learning so as to enhance the UX.

jakub_g 11y ago

When you scroll to the bottom on Uber's play store page it displays this for me: http://m.imgur.com/ndfjQWv http://m.imgur.com/ndfjQWv They request 'running apps' only from this particular subgroup. Notice the wording on the original screenshot: 'one or more of'. TLDR they don't request browsing history, the Android permissions screen on update is confusing

readams 11y ago
When I go to that page I see the "retrieve running apps" permission under a category "Other." It would appear that I cannot disable the "Other" category in the app permission configuration. EDIT: There's another comment in the thread that indicates that this retrieve running apps permission actually doesn't do anything on Lollipop+: it just returns the app's own windows. Which would explain why it was moved to the "Other" category.