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This is throwing the baby with the bathtub, completely ridiculous. They could remove internet permission from all applications except Google's own Chrome, with

This is throwing the baby with the bathtub, completely ridiculous. They could remove internet permission from all applications except Google's own Chrome, with that reasoning. Instead of removing clipboard permissions from all applications, make it a clear option so that the user can give it when needed or only to a specific application, for instance the essential clipboard manager -- that Android incomprehensibly doesn't have and never has, as part of its core. So far only third-party applications have provided this needed feature. Bundling clipboard with Google's keyboard ( or others like Swiftkey ) that come loaded with unnecessary permissions ( like internet -- I personally never use a keyboard with that permission ! ) and analytics packages is certainly not improving privacy at all.

jeswin 8y ago
I'd bet that less than 0.1% of users use a custom clipboard. Android's primary focus should be to make the OS secure for the nontechnical majority. These are people who don't understand permissions, and will click on app installer popups. IMHO this is a welcome move. An alternative would have been to deny all network access to clipboard apps - thereby ensuring that they are not able to steal any data.
- Ultramanoid 8y ago
  According to numbers of downloads of clipboard managers, it's probably much higher than that. But the reasoning doesn't stand. Like I said, they could remove all phony Chrome clones with massive analytics and calls home, of which there are dozens, with read and write storage permissions, internet permission, etc, the list goes on and on. And say only Chrome is allowed, or vetted browsers from known vendors, like Mozilla or Microsoft, they certainly should, but they don't do it. Yet they pick on an essential feature for anyone using copy and paste hundreds of times a day. There is much more danger in rogue browsers, by far, than in a clipboard manager. The solution is absolutely obvious. It isn't what they decided. It is just the first beta, but we'll see. It'd be ridiculous to need to have a text file always open in another application with constantly used bits of text, code, or info, and switch back and forth as needed multiplying a simple workflow by who knows how much in operations and time.
  - Klathmon 8y ago
    I'm sorry, but I think even saying 0.1% of users use a clipboard manager is way overestimating it. The top clipboard manager apps have like 500k installs. Android had 2.7 billion users in 2017. If we assume that the Android install base hasn't grown and that the total base of clipboard managers is 10x larger, we still only get to 0.18% of users...
    - Ultramanoid 8y ago
      Clipper [1] alone has over a million installations. Others as you say have 500k, it all amounts to millions of users of clipboard managers specifically labelled as such. Add other applications which couldn't work without a clipboard monitoring feature ( KDE Connect has been mentioned already, translation applications, text and code editors, the list goes on... ) and you jump to tens of millions if not hundreds of millions. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.rojekti.clipper https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.rojekti.cl...
- Arnt 8y ago
  I've no idea how many people use them, but I do and it's easy to get used to. What I use is an app called KDE Connect, which provides a shared clipboard with my desktop computer if the phone is on the same WLAN. It's neat. Really neat. And of course it needs network access.
- izacus 8y ago
  How many actual people (as in persons) are those 0.1% when it comes to Android? People here always operate with percentages like they're worth anything as absolute numbers.
chopin 8y ago
In which Android version Internet needs permission? Mine (7.1.1) does not have such a setting.
- Ultramanoid 8y ago
  Applications require permissions to run. Many require internet permission although it makes no sense. For instance all Google keyboards have internet permission. And most others. That something that can record and transmit every single thing one types has that permission, to me, seems insane and I certainly will use only keyboards that do not have such asinine requirement. Edit : https://fixitalready.eff.org/android/#/ https://fixitalready.eff.org/android/#/
  - londons_explore 8y ago
    Even without Internet permission there are easy ways to exfiltrate critical data. For example, the app could just open the browser set to http://myapp.com/?secretdata=Ultramanoids_password http://myapp.com/?secretdata=Ultramanoids_password How are you going to stop that? Have the browser stop and ask before loading the web page?
    - chopin 8y ago
      Wouldn't that be visible?
      - londons_explore 8y ago
        Yes, but by then your data is already exfiltrated. There are also a bunch of ways of doing it in non-visible ways by using API's of other apps
  - chopin 8y ago
    Looked up, thanks. Seems you can't grant or revoke that permission. I don't understand why having it at all if you cannot change it.

jeswin 8y ago

I'd bet that less than 0.1% of users use a custom clipboard. Android's primary focus should be to make the OS secure for the nontechnical majority. These are people who don't understand permissions, and will click on app installer popups. IMHO this is a welcome move. An alternative would have been to deny all network access to clipboard apps - thereby ensuring that they are not able to steal any data.

Ultramanoid 8y ago
According to numbers of downloads of clipboard managers, it's probably much higher than that. But the reasoning doesn't stand. Like I said, they could remove all phony Chrome clones with massive analytics and calls home, of which there are dozens, with read and write storage permissions, internet permission, etc, the list goes on and on. And say only Chrome is allowed, or vetted browsers from known vendors, like Mozilla or Microsoft, they certainly should, but they don't do it. Yet they pick on an essential feature for anyone using copy and paste hundreds of times a day. There is much more danger in rogue browsers, by far, than in a clipboard manager. The solution is absolutely obvious. It isn't what they decided. It is just the first beta, but we'll see. It'd be ridiculous to need to have a text file always open in another application with constantly used bits of text, code, or info, and switch back and forth as needed multiplying a simple workflow by who knows how much in operations and time.
- Klathmon 8y ago
  I'm sorry, but I think even saying 0.1% of users use a clipboard manager is way overestimating it. The top clipboard manager apps have like 500k installs. Android had 2.7 billion users in 2017. If we assume that the Android install base hasn't grown and that the total base of clipboard managers is 10x larger, we still only get to 0.18% of users...
  - Ultramanoid 8y ago
    Clipper [1] alone has over a million installations. Others as you say have 500k, it all amounts to millions of users of clipboard managers specifically labelled as such. Add other applications which couldn't work without a clipboard monitoring feature ( KDE Connect has been mentioned already, translation applications, text and code editors, the list goes on... ) and you jump to tens of millions if not hundreds of millions. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.rojekti.clipper https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.rojekti.cl...
Arnt 8y ago
I've no idea how many people use them, but I do and it's easy to get used to. What I use is an app called KDE Connect, which provides a shared clipboard with my desktop computer if the phone is on the same WLAN. It's neat. Really neat. And of course it needs network access.
izacus 8y ago
How many actual people (as in persons) are those 0.1% when it comes to Android? People here always operate with percentages like they're worth anything as absolute numbers.

chopin 8y ago

In which Android version Internet needs permission? Mine (7.1.1) does not have such a setting.

Ultramanoid 8y ago
Applications require permissions to run. Many require internet permission although it makes no sense. For instance all Google keyboards have internet permission. And most others. That something that can record and transmit every single thing one types has that permission, to me, seems insane and I certainly will use only keyboards that do not have such asinine requirement. Edit : https://fixitalready.eff.org/android/#/ https://fixitalready.eff.org/android/#/
- londons_explore 8y ago
  Even without Internet permission there are easy ways to exfiltrate critical data. For example, the app could just open the browser set to http://myapp.com/?secretdata=Ultramanoids_password http://myapp.com/?secretdata=Ultramanoids_password How are you going to stop that? Have the browser stop and ask before loading the web page?
  - chopin 8y ago
    Wouldn't that be visible?
    - londons_explore 8y ago
      Yes, but by then your data is already exfiltrated. There are also a bunch of ways of doing it in non-visible ways by using API's of other apps
- chopin 8y ago
  Looked up, thanks. Seems you can't grant or revoke that permission. I don't understand why having it at all if you cannot change it.