4 ms·

What's next? Change location settings remotely so that they can siphon more data? Who the hell at Google tought that playing with phone settings remotely was a

What's next? Change location settings remotely so that they can siphon more data? Who the hell at Google tought that playing with phone settings remotely was a good idea?

aneutron 8y ago
It can have legitimate use cases, for example administrating a large fleet of Android phones in a corporation. But I have to agree that mobilizing such machinery against typical non-enterprise users is stupid. In some countries that could make them vulnerable to huge lawsuits
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- reaperducer 8y ago
  In some countries that could make them vulnerable to huge lawsuits In some countries it could be leveraged to put government-sponsored spyware on everyone's phones. And by "some" I mean "all."
jjoonathan 8y ago
The same people who thought it was a good idea to give control of the lockscreen to third parties who are notorious for attention-seeking and brinksmanship (album art) -- and then to remove the setting to control it. (Album art is communicated through notifications so you can still revoke access on a per-app basis, but the new setting is not explicit, not global, coarse, and overrode my preferences during an "upgrade". Ugh.)
- shittyadmin 8y ago
  Well, at least in modern Android it's not as bad as it used to be - it used to take up the entire background of the lockscreen. I used to need an Xposed module just to fix that.
  - SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
    My gym phone still has android 5 on it - nothing like having everyone see you're pumping yourself up for your big lift with Frozen. "LET IT GOOOOOOO!!!!"
curiousgal 8y ago
> Change location settings remotely You don't have to change a setting if it never works. points at temple https://bgr.com/2018/08/20/lawsuit-google-violates-privacy-tracking-locations/ https://bgr.com/2018/08/20/lawsuit-google-violates-privacy-t...
romed 8y ago
I guess it's pretty obvious that the company who regularly pushes new software to your phone can also change the interpretation of settings and preferences as they like, or remove the preferences and settings altogether, or replace your wallpaper with cat photos. How has this gone uncontemplated by the HN commentariat?
solarkraft 8y ago
LMAO. They already track people who disabled tracking without telling them about it. If you request they delete your data they probably won't, either. Tech companies (especially Google) are giant black boxes with vast control over our lives. "The Circle" wasn't a good movie in my eyes, but it might give people a feeling of what such a company is capable of.

What's next? Change location settings remotely so that they can siphon more data? Who the hell at Google tought that playing with phone settings remotely was a good idea?

aneutron 8y ago

It can have legitimate use cases, for example administrating a large fleet of Android phones in a corporation. But I have to agree that mobilizing such machinery against typical non-enterprise users is stupid. In some countries that could make them vulnerable to huge lawsuits

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
reaperducer 8y ago
In some countries that could make them vulnerable to huge lawsuits In some countries it could be leveraged to put government-sponsored spyware on everyone's phones. And by "some" I mean "all."

jjoonathan 8y ago

The same people who thought it was a good idea to give control of the lockscreen to third parties who are notorious for attention-seeking and brinksmanship (album art) -- and then to remove the setting to control it. (Album art is communicated through notifications so you can still revoke access on a per-app basis, but the new setting is not explicit, not global, coarse, and overrode my preferences during an "upgrade". Ugh.)

shittyadmin 8y ago
Well, at least in modern Android it's not as bad as it used to be - it used to take up the entire background of the lockscreen. I used to need an Xposed module just to fix that.
- SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
  My gym phone still has android 5 on it - nothing like having everyone see you're pumping yourself up for your big lift with Frozen. "LET IT GOOOOOOO!!!!"

curiousgal 8y ago

> Change location settings remotely You don't have to change a setting if it never works. points at temple https://bgr.com/2018/08/20/lawsuit-google-violates-privacy-tracking-locations/ https://bgr.com/2018/08/20/lawsuit-google-violates-privacy-t...

romed 8y ago

I guess it's pretty obvious that the company who regularly pushes new software to your phone can also change the interpretation of settings and preferences as they like, or remove the preferences and settings altogether, or replace your wallpaper with cat photos. How has this gone uncontemplated by the HN commentariat?

solarkraft 8y ago

LMAO. They already track people who disabled tracking without telling them about it. If you request they delete your data they probably won't, either. Tech companies (especially Google) are giant black boxes with vast control over our lives. "The Circle" wasn't a good movie in my eyes, but it might give people a feeling of what such a company is capable of.