Permission Requests are the main reason why I cancel app installations on Android
I like Android apps a lot, and I enjoy the discovery as much as I enjoy discovering new desktop software.
I do skip the installation of Android apps that I discover fairly often though, probably 50% or even more than that.
The sole reason why I'm canceling the installation dialog after hitting the install button on Google Play is if an application requests permissions that I think it does not require for functionality.
For instance, I stumbled upon Music Radio recently which plays songs that you enter using Internet Radio. I like the concept but when I noticed that it requires SMS permissions, I canceled the installation process immediately.
I cannot come up with a single reason why an Internet Radio application would require access to the SMS system on the device.
There may be an explanation for that but it is not listed on the Google Play page of the app, and since I cannot think of a reason, I canceled the installation.
Obviously, if I would install a messaging applications that supports SMS, that permission would make sense and I would not have issues installing it based on that.
If you look at Android's permission groups, you may find permissions listed there that you consider critical while you may not have issues with others. I do think that most permissions can be critical in one way or the other though, especially if they are requested by an app or game that should not need those for its functionality
Whenever I click the install button on Google Play, I go through all permissions that an app requests to determine whether it makes sense that it requests those.
Here are some examples of apps and games that I did not install because of the permissions they requested:
- Flow Home, an Android launcher: Requested Identity, Contacts and Location.
- Iconic Quiz, a quiz game: Requested device & app history, identity and device ID & call information.
- Lumi, a news app: Requested Device & app history, identity, contacts, and Device ID & call information.
- Retrica, an Instagram like app: Requested Device & Call informatino
- Solid Explorer File Manager: Requested Identity and Device ID & call information.
There may be explanations for some or even all of the requested permissions but since they were not listed on the apps' page on Google Play, I could not verify those.
I have my reasons for doing so. The first is that I want to avoid privacy-invading applications. I don't want my contacts lists, call history or messages to leak to some obscure database on the Internet.
While leaking is bad enough, there is also the chance that applications abuse the permissions for malicious activities.
I'm not saying that this is the case for the applications and games listed above but I prefer to play it safe.
What about you? Do you check permissions before you install apps?
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?