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If one could solve the app validation problem with OS enforcement, Apple and Google certainly would have already. (Though both have made incremental progress).

If one could solve the app validation problem with OS enforcement, Apple and Google certainly would have already. (Though both have made incremental progress). They spend a huge amount of resources in the app review pipelines. In particular, validating privacy policies is an unsolved area. How would one enforce that an app is allowed to access health data but doesn't forward it to the internet? One might envision some language environment that can track taint-style the flow of data through an application, but this seems beyond state-of-the-art.

orlp 4y ago
> One might envision some language environment that can track taint-style the flow of data through an application, but this seems beyond state-of-the-art. World of Warcraft has had this in its addon system for over 15 years: https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Secure_Execution_and_Tainting https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Secure_Execution_and_Tainti... . It completely controls the language (embedded Lua) and execution environment though.
- saagarjha 4y ago
  Most developers are generally unable to write apps in an environment like this.
holoduke 4y ago
In future one can only do API calls via a Google owned firebase like environment. Your services need to run there and each service is reviewed and constantly monitored by smart AI bots who can detect abuse and flag your services as dangerous if needed and in result reject and remove your app from the app store. You can appeal against very smart AI which sometimes tell you what to do to resolve the issue by sending you a link of 1000 pages of terms and conditions. Google finally added a personal contact phone number for a developer. You can request support 24 hours per day. The extremely intelligent and responsive AI will solve every issue for you.
Const-me 4y ago
> How would one enforce that an app is allowed to access health data but doesn't forward it to the internet? User-mode code can’t do any IO or networking by itself. Instead, apps call OS kernels asking to open files or sockets for them. It’s impossible to disable forwarding just for the health data, but it’s easy for an OS to completely disable any TCP/IP networking for an app which uses health data. Apple and Google are struggling with that problem because in their ecosystems many developers rely on in-app advertisements, and Google is even running its own ads network.

orlp 4y ago

> One might envision some language environment that can track taint-style the flow of data through an application, but this seems beyond state-of-the-art. World of Warcraft has had this in its addon system for over 15 years: https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Secure_Execution_and_Tainting https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Secure_Execution_and_Tainti... . It completely controls the language (embedded Lua) and execution environment though.

saagarjha 4y ago
Most developers are generally unable to write apps in an environment like this.

holoduke 4y ago

In future one can only do API calls via a Google owned firebase like environment. Your services need to run there and each service is reviewed and constantly monitored by smart AI bots who can detect abuse and flag your services as dangerous if needed and in result reject and remove your app from the app store. You can appeal against very smart AI which sometimes tell you what to do to resolve the issue by sending you a link of 1000 pages of terms and conditions. Google finally added a personal contact phone number for a developer. You can request support 24 hours per day. The extremely intelligent and responsive AI will solve every issue for you.

Const-me 4y ago

> How would one enforce that an app is allowed to access health data but doesn't forward it to the internet? User-mode code can’t do any IO or networking by itself. Instead, apps call OS kernels asking to open files or sockets for them. It’s impossible to disable forwarding just for the health data, but it’s easy for an OS to completely disable any TCP/IP networking for an app which uses health data. Apple and Google are struggling with that problem because in their ecosystems many developers rely on in-app advertisements, and Google is even running its own ads network.