5 ms·

From my perspective it seems like Apple keeps releasing new privacy features and Android keeps being forced to catch up. What are the major privacy enhancements

by tedivm 6y ago

From my perspective it seems like Apple keeps releasing new privacy features and Android keeps being forced to catch up. What are the major privacy enhancements that Google has put out first?

dahfizz 6y ago
I believe Android was the first to have fine grained app permissions where you could actually choose what an app has access to. iOS added that later.
- AnonC 6y ago
  Android had install time permissions for a long while. The user either had to allow all permissions asked by the app during install or not be allowed to install the app. On the other side, iOS had runtime permissions (nothing during installation) that were prompted by the system whenever the app needed a permission. When runtime permissions were added to Android 6, apps used to crash when not granted the permissions (so much so that some Android versions also started faking location data to apps when the user denied location access). This took a few years to improve, but even today, there are Android apps that will refuse to work if you don't grant some (unnecessary, in the view of the user) permission. That kind of behavior is very, very rare among iOS apps.
- callalex 6y ago
  As a checkbox prompt on install, yes. iOS has always and will continue a slightly different model of throwing a modular question up to the user at the moment the action that requires the permission first occurs. This gives the user more context about the question, but also gives more alert fatigue. Which is better is left as an exercise to the reader.
- JimDabell 6y ago
  No, it’s the other way around. In the beginning, Android showed you what an app could before you installed it, and it was an all-or-nothing approach – if you didn't want the app to do those things, your only choice was to not install it. In the beginning, iOS didn't have this, and instead it prompted you for permission the first time an app wanted permission to do something. Additionally, app review had rules that apps had to operate correctly if you refused permission and that apps couldn’t ask for permissions irrelevant to what you are doing. So you can install an app, then pick and choose what you grant permission for. Later, Android added the prompts to work the same as iOS. iOS hasn't changed to include the Android approach.
  - kllrnohj 6y ago
    In the beginning iOS basically didn't have permissions at all. There were some random ones like GPS (and push notifications?!), but there was for example no permission to access contacts. Or photos. That didn't come until iOS 6. So in the very very very beginning it was: iOS: prompts for permissions, but almost nothing (including accessing user data) requires permissions anyway Android: Granular permissions for everything, but only asked at install time. Since then iOS has become "more Android-y" in adding increasingly more granular permissions, and Android has become "more iOS-y" in those permission grants being on-demand and time-gated.
patrickyeon 6y ago
Sorry, I don't have a history of this here. I'm running off my sense of a fair portion of the time when I hear "this new privacy feature coming to iOS" I think "oh I've had that for a little while", and the rest of the time something equivalent shows up later for Android.
platinumrad 6y ago
Android blocked background clipboard access in 2019.
- nmstoker 6y ago
  Here's a source confirming that: https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/03/14/android-q-will-kill-clipboard-manager-apps-in-the-name-of-privacy/?amp https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/03/14/android-q-will-kill...
  - zlsa 6y ago
    It's worth noting that (AFAIK) iOS has never allowed apps in the background to read the clipboard buffer: https://security.stackexchange.com/a/176375 https://security.stackexchange.com/a/176375
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
Nullabillity 6y ago
Android has supported piecemeal permissions for ages (only let app X access this one photo, or this one contact), which Apple seems to be starting to copy in iOS 14 (though, as usual, seemingly without a single thought to the long-term UX).
- TheChaplain 6y ago
  Not sure about this. I can give an app permissions to contacts, not a specific contact. Unless they changed this in Android 11?
  - Nullabillity 6y ago
    You can send an Intent to request that the user pick a contact, without having the contacts permission. The app gets a copy of the contact that the user picked.
sergeykish 6y ago
That's how Apple users feel in general.
- tedivm 6y ago
  I'm actually an android user, but okay.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

by tedivm 6y ago

From my perspective it seems like Apple keeps releasing new privacy features and Android keeps being forced to catch up. What are the major privacy enhancements that Google has put out first?

dahfizz 6y ago

I believe Android was the first to have fine grained app permissions where you could actually choose what an app has access to. iOS added that later.

AnonC 6y ago
Android had install time permissions for a long while. The user either had to allow all permissions asked by the app during install or not be allowed to install the app. On the other side, iOS had runtime permissions (nothing during installation) that were prompted by the system whenever the app needed a permission. When runtime permissions were added to Android 6, apps used to crash when not granted the permissions (so much so that some Android versions also started faking location data to apps when the user denied location access). This took a few years to improve, but even today, there are Android apps that will refuse to work if you don't grant some (unnecessary, in the view of the user) permission. That kind of behavior is very, very rare among iOS apps.
callalex 6y ago
As a checkbox prompt on install, yes. iOS has always and will continue a slightly different model of throwing a modular question up to the user at the moment the action that requires the permission first occurs. This gives the user more context about the question, but also gives more alert fatigue. Which is better is left as an exercise to the reader.
JimDabell 6y ago
No, it’s the other way around. In the beginning, Android showed you what an app could before you installed it, and it was an all-or-nothing approach – if you didn't want the app to do those things, your only choice was to not install it. In the beginning, iOS didn't have this, and instead it prompted you for permission the first time an app wanted permission to do something. Additionally, app review had rules that apps had to operate correctly if you refused permission and that apps couldn’t ask for permissions irrelevant to what you are doing. So you can install an app, then pick and choose what you grant permission for. Later, Android added the prompts to work the same as iOS. iOS hasn't changed to include the Android approach.
- kllrnohj 6y ago
  In the beginning iOS basically didn't have permissions at all. There were some random ones like GPS (and push notifications?!), but there was for example no permission to access contacts. Or photos. That didn't come until iOS 6. So in the very very very beginning it was: iOS: prompts for permissions, but almost nothing (including accessing user data) requires permissions anyway Android: Granular permissions for everything, but only asked at install time. Since then iOS has become "more Android-y" in adding increasingly more granular permissions, and Android has become "more iOS-y" in those permission grants being on-demand and time-gated.

patrickyeon 6y ago

Sorry, I don't have a history of this here. I'm running off my sense of a fair portion of the time when I hear "this new privacy feature coming to iOS" I think "oh I've had that for a little while", and the rest of the time something equivalent shows up later for Android.

platinumrad 6y ago

Android blocked background clipboard access in 2019.

nmstoker 6y ago
Here's a source confirming that: https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/03/14/android-q-will-kill-clipboard-manager-apps-in-the-name-of-privacy/?amp https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/03/14/android-q-will-kill...
- zlsa 6y ago
  It's worth noting that (AFAIK) iOS has never allowed apps in the background to read the clipboard buffer: https://security.stackexchange.com/a/176375 https://security.stackexchange.com/a/176375
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

Nullabillity 6y ago

Android has supported piecemeal permissions for ages (only let app X access this one photo, or this one contact), which Apple seems to be starting to copy in iOS 14 (though, as usual, seemingly without a single thought to the long-term UX).

TheChaplain 6y ago
Not sure about this. I can give an app permissions to contacts, not a specific contact. Unless they changed this in Android 11?
- Nullabillity 6y ago
  You can send an Intent to request that the user pick a contact, without having the contacts permission. The app gets a copy of the contact that the user picked.

sergeykish 6y ago

That's how Apple users feel in general.

tedivm 6y ago
I'm actually an android user, but okay.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]