5 ms·

What Android really needs is a way to accept/deny each permission separately. I see some apps. asking for some permission they clearly do not need to function,

What Android really needs is a way to accept/deny each permission separately. I see some apps. asking for some permission they clearly do not need to function, and you're left with a choice of either not installing the app. at all or having to give it the permission you don't want.

cheald 13y ago
Many of the popular 3rd party ROMs have this feature. I think it's not in stock because it can break apps that expect "this feature that I require before installation should be here", which then blow up when the feature is not, in fact, there, but I guess that the assumption is that if you're savvy enough to run a custom ROM and to revoke permissions, you're savvy enough to place blame where blame's due.
- stephengillie 13y ago
  This feature was added to Cyanogenmod at some point, then removed later. Many apps are designed to not work unless they have these unnecessary permissions. I removed phone log permissions from some media and game apps (Bejeweled clones & coin-drop games) and they simply crashed.
  - dsr_ 13y ago
    If you root your phone and use a packet filter -- DroidWall is very good -- you can gate network communications per app. This works very well for apps that you don't trust, as long as you're willing to forego network connectivity for them.
  - MichaelGG 13y ago
    Of course they're going to crash if the call is simply denied or returns invalid information. The OS should simply return valid, dummy information (empty array, array with single fake contact, etc.).
- jra101 13y ago
  The OS could lie to the app after permission for some aspect was revoked and respond with no data or garbage data. For example if you revoked permission for access to pictures or something else like music, when that app queried for the number of pictures/music on the device the OS would just return 0. For something like GPS you could return a valid location (like say somewhere on the Google Campus).
corresation 13y ago
This long requested feature is partly implemented in Android 4.3. http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/07/25/app-ops-android-4-3s-hidden-app-permission-manager-control-permissions-for-individual-apps/ http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/07/25/app-ops-android-4-3s...
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- Too 13y ago
  > For some permissions, the app has to > make use of them before they will show up in App Ops So by the time an app has stolen all your personal data it's already too late to disable the permissions... Let's hope this feature will be complete and implemented properly by the time for release. It's far overdue already. This should have been built into the system from the start, now getting apps to degrade gracefully on declined permissions will be a pita.
  - corresation 13y ago
    So by the time an app has stolen all your personal data it's already too late to disable the permissions... It isn't a released feature, obviously. Instead it is clearly an soon pending feature.
discostrings 13y ago
If you feel like doing some not-too-difficult patching and running an AOSP-based ROM, take a look at OpenPDroid[1], which does exactly that. It would be much better if Google would come to their senses and include that functionally in Android. Which it looks like they might be working toward--AppOps in Android 4.3 is a start [2]. It looks like they may have even used the code from the PDroid project to implement it. [1] http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2098156 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2098156 [2] http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=44025221&postcount=3346 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=44025221&post...
RobotCaleb 13y ago
LBESM (requires root, but not a custom rom) can do this for you. I use it to block ads in apps, and to disallow permissions I don't agree with. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?s=1bb0ce5ab51ae9b4fe1f27e324aeee84&t=1422479 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?s=1bb0ce5ab51...
WestCoastJustin 13y ago
Permission is one of my major gripes about the whole smart phone thing. I wish devs would take the spirit of GNU and just release some simple free apps without all these "adware" crap. For example, I wanted to install a led flashlight app a couple days ago. The one with 10 million downloads wants access to my phone book, internet, browser, etc. WTF! This is a LED flashlight app and it has an install base of 10 million, why on earth does it need access to the internet and phone book?! Arg, there is a total disconnect between useful apps and privacy! I do not know what the answer is, but the current system really grinds my gears! Imagine if you wanted to use the ls, cd, grep, tar, pwd, top, etc commands on unix and an "ad" would pop up, or maybe you would see it connecting to the internet. These are utilities too. Is this acceptable behavior?
- signed0 13y ago
  If you are using Android and DashClock[0] there is a flashlight App without any permissions called DashLight[1]. [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.nurik.roman.dashclock&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.nurik.roma... [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spectrl.DashLight&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spectrl.Da...
- RobotCaleb 13y ago
  It's possible it doesn't use any of those permissions. Noobies don't know that/how they can configure the requested permissions.
- kevb 13y ago
  App stores are great for commercial developers but culturally clash with open source apps. If someone were to take grep and commercialize it, no one would use it. (Though I have seen stories about it happening with Blender). But if grep were an app in the Play Store, and it was open source, someone would grab the source, commercialize it, and maybe even invest in advertising to make their grep to the most popular one. Spare Parts is (was?) part of the Android Open Source Project, but got posted to the Android Market with ads added and only minor changes. Romain Guy (of Google's Android team) posted sample code for a Shelves application and had the same experience. I love open source, but make my living with closed source Android apps. One of my early projects actually was an LED flashlight app. I tried selling it for a week or two, then switched to a free and donate model which doesn't make much money. My other apps do, and it's just a flashlight so I have no interest in monetizing it. I also rarely update it, don't answer support emails for it, and certainly don't buy banner ads to promote it. Without any marketing effort on my part, there is no way it will compete with the commercial offerings. I've considered open sourcing it, and maybe I should, but I'm still a bit attached, as it was one of my first apps, and I'd hate to see a fork of it with ads and junk grow more popular than it. I also wouldn't have much time to review pull requests and build/test new APKs to publish. The app is TeslaLED. If it works on your device (works on most modern devices) then it's probably what you're looking for. Sadly if it doesn't it is unlikely to get updated in the near future with support.
aviraldg 13y ago
While I, as a power user and a developer would love this feature, I can only imagine the kind of problems it'll cause for regular users. eg. "Why does this flashlight app use the camera permission? (Because the Flash LED is part of the camera!) Why does X game use the phonebook permission? Let's disable it. Ugh, the friends feature no longer works. I'm going to give this app a 1 star rating." Users are stupid.

cheald 13y ago

Many of the popular 3rd party ROMs have this feature. I think it's not in stock because it can break apps that expect "this feature that I require before installation should be here", which then blow up when the feature is not, in fact, there, but I guess that the assumption is that if you're savvy enough to run a custom ROM and to revoke permissions, you're savvy enough to place blame where blame's due.

stephengillie 13y ago
This feature was added to Cyanogenmod at some point, then removed later. Many apps are designed to not work unless they have these unnecessary permissions. I removed phone log permissions from some media and game apps (Bejeweled clones & coin-drop games) and they simply crashed.
- dsr_ 13y ago
  If you root your phone and use a packet filter -- DroidWall is very good -- you can gate network communications per app. This works very well for apps that you don't trust, as long as you're willing to forego network connectivity for them.
- MichaelGG 13y ago
  Of course they're going to crash if the call is simply denied or returns invalid information. The OS should simply return valid, dummy information (empty array, array with single fake contact, etc.).
jra101 13y ago
The OS could lie to the app after permission for some aspect was revoked and respond with no data or garbage data. For example if you revoked permission for access to pictures or something else like music, when that app queried for the number of pictures/music on the device the OS would just return 0. For something like GPS you could return a valid location (like say somewhere on the Google Campus).

corresation 13y ago

This long requested feature is partly implemented in Android 4.3. http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/07/25/app-ops-android-4-3s-hidden-app-permission-manager-control-permissions-for-individual-apps/ http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/07/25/app-ops-android-4-3s...

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
Too 13y ago
> For some permissions, the app has to > make use of them before they will show up in App Ops So by the time an app has stolen all your personal data it's already too late to disable the permissions... Let's hope this feature will be complete and implemented properly by the time for release. It's far overdue already. This should have been built into the system from the start, now getting apps to degrade gracefully on declined permissions will be a pita.
- corresation 13y ago
  So by the time an app has stolen all your personal data it's already too late to disable the permissions... It isn't a released feature, obviously. Instead it is clearly an soon pending feature.

discostrings 13y ago

If you feel like doing some not-too-difficult patching and running an AOSP-based ROM, take a look at OpenPDroid[1], which does exactly that. It would be much better if Google would come to their senses and include that functionally in Android. Which it looks like they might be working toward--AppOps in Android 4.3 is a start [2]. It looks like they may have even used the code from the PDroid project to implement it. [1] http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2098156 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2098156 [2] http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=44025221&postcount=3346 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=44025221&post...

RobotCaleb 13y ago

LBESM (requires root, but not a custom rom) can do this for you. I use it to block ads in apps, and to disallow permissions I don't agree with. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?s=1bb0ce5ab51ae9b4fe1f27e324aeee84&t=1422479 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?s=1bb0ce5ab51...

WestCoastJustin 13y ago

Permission is one of my major gripes about the whole smart phone thing. I wish devs would take the spirit of GNU and just release some simple free apps without all these "adware" crap. For example, I wanted to install a led flashlight app a couple days ago. The one with 10 million downloads wants access to my phone book, internet, browser, etc. WTF! This is a LED flashlight app and it has an install base of 10 million, why on earth does it need access to the internet and phone book?! Arg, there is a total disconnect between useful apps and privacy! I do not know what the answer is, but the current system really grinds my gears! Imagine if you wanted to use the ls, cd, grep, tar, pwd, top, etc commands on unix and an "ad" would pop up, or maybe you would see it connecting to the internet. These are utilities too. Is this acceptable behavior?

signed0 13y ago
If you are using Android and DashClock[0] there is a flashlight App without any permissions called DashLight[1]. [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.nurik.roman.dashclock&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.nurik.roma... [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spectrl.DashLight&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spectrl.Da...
RobotCaleb 13y ago
It's possible it doesn't use any of those permissions. Noobies don't know that/how they can configure the requested permissions.
kevb 13y ago
App stores are great for commercial developers but culturally clash with open source apps. If someone were to take grep and commercialize it, no one would use it. (Though I have seen stories about it happening with Blender). But if grep were an app in the Play Store, and it was open source, someone would grab the source, commercialize it, and maybe even invest in advertising to make their grep to the most popular one. Spare Parts is (was?) part of the Android Open Source Project, but got posted to the Android Market with ads added and only minor changes. Romain Guy (of Google's Android team) posted sample code for a Shelves application and had the same experience. I love open source, but make my living with closed source Android apps. One of my early projects actually was an LED flashlight app. I tried selling it for a week or two, then switched to a free and donate model which doesn't make much money. My other apps do, and it's just a flashlight so I have no interest in monetizing it. I also rarely update it, don't answer support emails for it, and certainly don't buy banner ads to promote it. Without any marketing effort on my part, there is no way it will compete with the commercial offerings. I've considered open sourcing it, and maybe I should, but I'm still a bit attached, as it was one of my first apps, and I'd hate to see a fork of it with ads and junk grow more popular than it. I also wouldn't have much time to review pull requests and build/test new APKs to publish. The app is TeslaLED. If it works on your device (works on most modern devices) then it's probably what you're looking for. Sadly if it doesn't it is unlikely to get updated in the near future with support.

aviraldg 13y ago

While I, as a power user and a developer would love this feature, I can only imagine the kind of problems it'll cause for regular users. eg. "Why does this flashlight app use the camera permission? (Because the Flash LED is part of the camera!) Why does X game use the phonebook permission? Let's disable it. Ugh, the friends feature no longer works. I'm going to give this app a 1 star rating." Users are stupid.