5 ms·

Without setting location access to "always", this shouldn't be possible, right? He might only be talking about the customers who have it enabled. So yeah, will

by mon22 9y ago

Without setting location access to "always", this shouldn't be possible, right? He might only be talking about the customers who have it enabled. So yeah, will wait for the clarification.

product50 9y ago
On Android, that is not a setting you get.
- sp332 9y ago
  An Android, it also asks for permission to read all your photos and you can't use the app if you don't accept. I only run the app on an old iPhone I had lying around for that reason.
  - cryptoz 9y ago
    Is there a use case in the app that makes that somewhat reasonable? If not, it sounds like grounds to be reported and removed from Google Play as malware. I thought that would be 100% against the developer rules. Maybe it is just a guideline to only ask permission for things you need, and to let the user use the app even if permission isn't granted. Maybe it's just that Google won't feature you or something. But it should be against Play Store rules if it isn't already.
    - stickydink 9y ago
      From experience, Google does flag up permission usage as part of featuring. Insofar as listing all the ones that are used and requesting an explanation of why each is needed.
    - sp332 9y ago
      Not that I know of. It's never even asked for that kind of thing on the iPhone version so it's pretty confusing. Edit: according to old posts on a support forum, it might ask for a photo of your ticket stub. That doesn't explain why it wants access to your own photos, which is a different permission on Android from getting access to your camera.
    - paulcole 9y ago
      > Is there a use case in the app that makes that somewhat reasonable. Maybe image recognition to see the kinds of things you're eating/considering buying before/after going to the movies? This seems pretty reasonable to me. I consider it a fair trade for the monetary discount they're offering on their services. I don't want to spend $10-$15 whenever I want to go to the movies. But I'm more than happy to provide access to my data and photos which I have no way to easily convert to monetary value. If I didn't feel this way, I just wouldn't use their service.
      - FireBeyond 9y ago
        If only it were that harmless. No, the reason for accessing your Photos is to get the location and timestamp off of every one and build a nice little trail of where you are and where you go.
        castlecrasher2 9y ago
        To what end? This kind of hyperbole just desensitizes me to concerns about data collection.
        simias 9y ago
        That doesn't seem too far fetched to me. Knowing where you go gives a lot of information about you, who you are, what you're interested in etc... That sounds valuable for targeted advertising.
      - s73v3r_ 9y ago
        That doesn't seem the least bit reasonable to me. Especially if it's doing it without informing me.
        paulcole 9y ago
        If they ask for your permission to use your pictures and you give it, it shouldn't matter what they're doing. You could've said no and opted to not use their service.
  - olympus 9y ago
    I know that you didn't go out and buy the iPhone just for this purpose, but dang, this might be the pinnacle of modern consumerism. "I have a spare smartphone to use for apps that I don't want on my main smartphone."
    - sp332 9y ago
      Heh. I prefer Android and my wife uses iPhones, so if I want to run any iOS apps I have to make do with her old iPhone 5. So maybe not the pinnacle of consumerism, but I'm certainly lucky to be able to hoard old tech.
- OJFord 9y ago
  You can disable location access completely, or while in background, or prompt every time.
- wvenable 9y ago
  On Samsung devices you can put an app to sleep -- it gets no cycles when it's not running and can't even send you notifications. It's great for these kind of apps that you want to use but otherwise don't want running in the background.
sp332 9y ago
My guess is that they don't collect the data themselves, but buy the location data from some other company. Then they can combine the location data with the movie data they collect themselves. Then they could either use that for advertising, or sell the bundled data along to advertisers for more money.
- chiefalchemist 9y ago
  By they do you mean the NSA or the CIA? ;)

by mon22 9y ago

Without setting location access to "always", this shouldn't be possible, right? He might only be talking about the customers who have it enabled. So yeah, will wait for the clarification.

product50 9y ago

On Android, that is not a setting you get.

sp332 9y ago
An Android, it also asks for permission to read all your photos and you can't use the app if you don't accept. I only run the app on an old iPhone I had lying around for that reason.
- cryptoz 9y ago
  Is there a use case in the app that makes that somewhat reasonable? If not, it sounds like grounds to be reported and removed from Google Play as malware. I thought that would be 100% against the developer rules. Maybe it is just a guideline to only ask permission for things you need, and to let the user use the app even if permission isn't granted. Maybe it's just that Google won't feature you or something. But it should be against Play Store rules if it isn't already.
  - stickydink 9y ago
    From experience, Google does flag up permission usage as part of featuring. Insofar as listing all the ones that are used and requesting an explanation of why each is needed.
  - sp332 9y ago
    Not that I know of. It's never even asked for that kind of thing on the iPhone version so it's pretty confusing. Edit: according to old posts on a support forum, it might ask for a photo of your ticket stub. That doesn't explain why it wants access to your own photos, which is a different permission on Android from getting access to your camera.
  - paulcole 9y ago
    > Is there a use case in the app that makes that somewhat reasonable. Maybe image recognition to see the kinds of things you're eating/considering buying before/after going to the movies? This seems pretty reasonable to me. I consider it a fair trade for the monetary discount they're offering on their services. I don't want to spend $10-$15 whenever I want to go to the movies. But I'm more than happy to provide access to my data and photos which I have no way to easily convert to monetary value. If I didn't feel this way, I just wouldn't use their service.
    - FireBeyond 9y ago
      If only it were that harmless. No, the reason for accessing your Photos is to get the location and timestamp off of every one and build a nice little trail of where you are and where you go.
      - castlecrasher2 9y ago
        To what end? This kind of hyperbole just desensitizes me to concerns about data collection.
        simias 9y ago
        That doesn't seem too far fetched to me. Knowing where you go gives a lot of information about you, who you are, what you're interested in etc... That sounds valuable for targeted advertising.
    - s73v3r_ 9y ago
      That doesn't seem the least bit reasonable to me. Especially if it's doing it without informing me.
      - paulcole 9y ago
        If they ask for your permission to use your pictures and you give it, it shouldn't matter what they're doing. You could've said no and opted to not use their service.
- olympus 9y ago
  I know that you didn't go out and buy the iPhone just for this purpose, but dang, this might be the pinnacle of modern consumerism. "I have a spare smartphone to use for apps that I don't want on my main smartphone."
  - sp332 9y ago
    Heh. I prefer Android and my wife uses iPhones, so if I want to run any iOS apps I have to make do with her old iPhone 5. So maybe not the pinnacle of consumerism, but I'm certainly lucky to be able to hoard old tech.
OJFord 9y ago
You can disable location access completely, or while in background, or prompt every time.
wvenable 9y ago
On Samsung devices you can put an app to sleep -- it gets no cycles when it's not running and can't even send you notifications. It's great for these kind of apps that you want to use but otherwise don't want running in the background.

sp332 9y ago

My guess is that they don't collect the data themselves, but buy the location data from some other company. Then they can combine the location data with the movie data they collect themselves. Then they could either use that for advertising, or sell the bundled data along to advertisers for more money.

chiefalchemist 9y ago
By they do you mean the NSA or the CIA? ;)