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Well, from user perspective would be useful, but I don't have much expectations it would be implemented in, say, Android. They ofcourse want quality data. Have

by jve 6y ago

Well, from user perspective would be useful, but I don't have much expectations it would be implemented in, say, Android. They ofcourse want quality data. Haven't done in-depth Android development, but I believe there is option to fake some GPS data? Ofcourse, not that helpful if you want 1 app to have real data, the other... not so real. Proper way would be force devs think about REQUIRED and OPTIONAL permissions you can give. REQUIRED permissions are given on launch (or maybe you just get useless app), OPTIONAL permissions for improved features and fails gracefully if not given. It currently works that way, but is up to developer to implement it that way. Perhaps adding advantage to those apps that do not REQUIRE sensitive permissions. Say a filter in Play Store you can use to filter our apps that require X permissions to work. In some cases, devs would be incentivized to REQUIRE less permissions. When writing this comment, I thought about another solution. User profiles on android. Like on browser, where you get your own cookies etc. Googled around and.. looks like Android has something to offer!? Doesn't solve location, but perhaps Storage/Contacts. https://source.android.com/devices/tech/admin/multi-user https://source.android.com/devices/tech/admin/multi-user https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/2865483?hl=en https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/2865483?hl=en > Notifications appear for all accounts of a single user at once. > Notifications for other users do not appear until active. Each user gets a workspace to install and place apps. > No user has access to the app data of another user. > Any user can affect the installed apps for all users. > The primary user can remove apps or even the entire workspace established by secondary users.

grishka 6y ago
I'm primarily an Android developer myself and I do respect my users <s>and that's why I have no job</s>, so yes, I request permissions only when they're absolutely necessary and when it's obvious as to why the permission is needed. The bigger problem, though, is that you can't trust bad actors to act good. DNT in browsers has showed that extremely clearly: it was meant as a marker for you to not be tracked, yet advertisers used it as an additional bit for fingerprinting. Policy might be a way, but it relies on humans looking at apps. It's always much more effective to have technical measures in place, if possible. As in, no mater how much you'd like, you can't track a user across the web if their browser doesn't accept third-party cookies. And many app developers are in no way better than web developers with their incentives, intentions and tactics, it's just that the web makes these issues more noticeable.

by jve 6y ago

grishka 6y ago

I'm primarily an Android developer myself and I do respect my users <s>and that's why I have no job</s>, so yes, I request permissions only when they're absolutely necessary and when it's obvious as to why the permission is needed. The bigger problem, though, is that you can't trust bad actors to act good. DNT in browsers has showed that extremely clearly: it was meant as a marker for you to not be tracked, yet advertisers used it as an additional bit for fingerprinting. Policy might be a way, but it relies on humans looking at apps. It's always much more effective to have technical measures in place, if possible. As in, no mater how much you'd like, you can't track a user across the web if their browser doesn't accept third-party cookies. And many app developers are in no way better than web developers with their incentives, intentions and tactics, it's just that the web makes these issues more noticeable.