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I trust it because it came from an app store that has humans reviewing submissions, was programmed against an API that requires it explicitly ask for every perm
by freehunter 7y ago
I trust it because it came from an app store that has humans reviewing submissions, was programmed against an API that requires it explicitly ask for every permission it's given, with an OS that allows me to revoke that permission whenever I want to, with an assurance that it cannot break out of that permissions structure, and a knowledge that it cannot run arbitrary code in the background without me knowing it.
Windows (and Linux and macOS and other desktop OSes) offer none of these security features without third party software.
- saagarjha 7y agoNew versions of macOS put up permission dialogs when apps try to access hardware or sensitive data.
- oarsinsync 7y agoUnfortunately, that still doesn't prevent a large number of them tracking you using permissions you've granted, or permissions it doesn't need to explicitly ask for. There have been a number of articles recently about iPhone apps phoning home regularly without user knowledge. iOS is arguably significantly better than the alternatives, but lets not kid ourselves as to how far that trust should go. Services like Guardian Firewall for iOS[0] wouldn't be in continued active development if the OS or review process was sufficient. Of course, there'll be plenty of snakeoil as time goes on, but at this stage, there's a lot of credibility behind the need for these services. [0] https://guardianapp.com/ https://guardianapp.com/