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Not an american, but I would not install a government application on my device unless it was opensourced (happened in my home country with our covid tracker).
by MrDresden 6y ago
Not an american, but I would not install a government application on my device unless it was opensourced (happened in my home country with our covid tracker).
And about the permissions:
1. There is plenty of internal sandbox space for logs (even on low end devices) unless no care is taken in trimming those logs, so don't see need for this.
2. Probably due to location detection, but could lead to some scary mass data analysis (Google has been working on mapping the insides of buildings using triangulation of wifi singals from Android devices; source: ADB podcast)
3. This shouldn't be done, and has been adviced against for years. The device should register for an id on a FCC controlled server.
4. Makes sense for what they are doing.
5. Comes out of the box on Android since a few years ago
6. Makes no sense. No need to keep the device from sleeping to do the analysis.
7. Detecting bandwidth usage and capabilities is what the app is supposed to do.
- gsich 6y ago6: without this you can turn off the display and the app will either perform much worse or killed.
- MrDresden 6y agoAs an Android dev my self I assure you there is no need for that permission, unless they are doing real time processing all the time (rather than batched processing at scheduled intervals). Which if they do, I sure hope they explain that to their users, as that will have a serious impact on their devices.
- MrDresden 6y agoI honestly am wondering why this comment is being downvoted. There are ample ways of performing background processing on the bandwidth data, and scheduling background tasks when the wifi information changes, that do not require the device to be permanently turned on (which would have a drastic effect on the battery life, and potentially screen burns).
- mrguyorama 6y agoJust downloaded the app. The reason for the "keep awake/do stuff in the background" permission is because the app has a "perform regular tests on a schedule" feature. In fact this app has a good few features that seem mildly unnnecessary just for collecting broadband speed data for the government. Seems they wanted to provide something that was useful to the user as well
- infogulch 6y agoSo? Cancel the bandwidth test if the screen turns off.
- ElijahLynn 6y agoThere is no reason this app should NOT be opensourced. They should be defaulting to open per Play 13 of the US Digital Service handbook > https://playbook.cio.gov/#play13 https://playbook.cio.gov/#play13.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]