> If an app has permissions to work as an app stores, it should already be able to query installed packages, no? They say "any and all third party app stores."

> If an app has permissions to work as an app stores, it should already be able to query installed packages, no? They say "any and all third party app stores." Does that include app stores the user hasn't installed? Google may collect a massive amount of data, but virtually none of it ever leaves Google. I believe, but I'm not sure, that requests to use data collected about users has to pass through something like a Google equivalent to a IRB, and strictly only used in aggregate ways or anonymized? Google does not tell anyone what apps you install (though they also don't prevent apps you install from collecting and reporting what apps you have installed...) Third parties could do whatever they want. That said, Android app permissions are so permissive, anyone using Android effectively doesn't have much privacy from third parties to begin with. It's why I switched to iOS - apps are much more restricted in terms of what data it's even possible to collect, and you even have a lot of control over many types of data provided to Apple (for example, you can turn off WiFi geolocation collection, traffic data collection, etc. It's great for battery life and data savings!)