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For Uber and UberEats I now manually manage these in Android (which I do for a few other apps I have lower trust for). Which means I shut off all permissions b

by buro9 10y ago

For Uber and UberEats I now manually manage these in Android (which I do for a few other apps I have lower trust for). Which means I shut off all permissions between uses, and I block all notifications. I grant Location, only as needed to get a driver or place an order. Once I'm in the car, I turn airplane mode on, deny all permissions and notifications, and I reboot the phone. Isn't it crazy that this is where we are now. Invasive tracking has become so normal that I have to manage the access an app has in such a tightly constrained way. I'm starting to think a 2nd device that I leave turned off 99% of the time would be an easier way to sandbox apps I don't trust.

skeptic2718 10y ago
No taxis in your area? Maybe a central phone number you can call to hail one? Why Uber and all this trouble?
- SixSigma 10y ago
  My guess is because Uber is subsidising the ride and providing convenient bill paying options.
- buro9 10y ago
  I'm in London, and public transport is good enough for most journeys, and I loathe black cabs far more than I feel anything (except distrust) about Uber. Uber works wherever I am in London, it's cheap enough (realistic compared to black cabs). It's good enough, but not good enough that I'm fine with their various invasive activities. One not mentioned elsewhere is how they use both rider and driver mobiles as a kind of distributed cache/database. Which is the thing that started me off on "kill the background process", initially to spare my own data and battery.
pawadu 10y ago
Have you tested any automation apps for Android like Tasker [1] and Automate [2] for doing all this automagically? [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.... [2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.llamalab.automate https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.llamalab.a...
- buro9 10y ago
  Both look nice, but it also looks like neither can manage app-level permissions (enable/disable Location) and preferences (block Notifications)
  - pawadu 10y ago
    I think there are some plugins for doing that, for example https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.intangible... This requires the super-sensitive WRITE_SETTINGS permission, which must be granted manually.
uiuiuop 10y ago
That's basically what I do. I have a spare phone with a pay as you go number that I give out and use for other services that want my number. It's basically a dedicated spam phone/number.

by buro9 10y ago

skeptic2718 10y ago

No taxis in your area? Maybe a central phone number you can call to hail one? Why Uber and all this trouble?

SixSigma 10y ago
My guess is because Uber is subsidising the ride and providing convenient bill paying options.
buro9 10y ago
I'm in London, and public transport is good enough for most journeys, and I loathe black cabs far more than I feel anything (except distrust) about Uber. Uber works wherever I am in London, it's cheap enough (realistic compared to black cabs). It's good enough, but not good enough that I'm fine with their various invasive activities. One not mentioned elsewhere is how they use both rider and driver mobiles as a kind of distributed cache/database. Which is the thing that started me off on "kill the background process", initially to spare my own data and battery.

pawadu 10y ago

Have you tested any automation apps for Android like Tasker [1] and Automate [2] for doing all this automagically? [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.... [2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.llamalab.automate https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.llamalab.a...

buro9 10y ago
Both look nice, but it also looks like neither can manage app-level permissions (enable/disable Location) and preferences (block Notifications)
- pawadu 10y ago
  I think there are some plugins for doing that, for example https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.intangible... This requires the super-sensitive WRITE_SETTINGS permission, which must be granted manually.

uiuiuop 10y ago

That's basically what I do. I have a spare phone with a pay as you go number that I give out and use for other services that want my number. It's basically a dedicated spam phone/number.