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Android and privacy

I

idonteven

Lurker
So I just bought an Android phone for the first time.
Now I see most of apps require control over camera, messages, calls...
Does that mean someone can actually spy on me or that's just a formality? Dunno, like take picture, record sms convos and send that data somewhere or something?
Were there any known cases where common users we're followed like that?
I'm a huge fan of dystopian future movies, but this is kind of concerning...

Please, refrain from sarcastic comments :)
 
A lot of times these permissions can be explained logically. The reasons can be a bit abstract though.
Can you give an example and hopefully someone can explain it?
 
funkylogik said:
A lot of times these permissions can be explained logically. The reasons can be a bit abstract though.
Can you give an example and hopefully someone can explain it?
Click to expand...

I'm wondering why certain apps have control over camera/calls/messages.
Why Chrome needs control over camera? Why in the hell would Dead Trigger need control over camera?! Why Facebook have control for calls and pretty much everything? Why IMDB needs GPS info? Etc...
 
Thanks Clementine :) think i linked the end of the thread.
The camera im not sure of tbh, gps probably so the app knows your country, facebook puts facebook friends into your contact list i think(?) And you can dial friends from within fb.
Bare in mind that permissions dont necessarily mean an app wants "control" over something.
A lot of apps need access to calls so that when you recieve a call, the game or whatever knows to pause.
This is what i mean by some of the reasoning being abstract
 
Heres an app i recommend uploadfromtaptalk1394333328327.jpg
You just download and forget about it then when you install an app, this notifies you if theres ads or any permissions that you might want to consider.
Just because it flags an app doesnt mean its malicious though, thats still up to you to decide :thumbup:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appspot.swisscodemonkeys.detector
 
Many apps need access to your calls, simply because they need to know if your getting one so they can close out and have you answer the call.

If an app has the potential to share photos (like Facebook), it needs access to the camera.

Facebook can also tag your post with the city you're in, therefore it needs access to location data
 
" Downloaded from a trusted source."...very good point that I forgot about. A respected developer's legitimate app can be repackaged by others to add malware. Stick with sources like Google play for example.
 
idonteven said:
I'm wondering why certain apps have control over camera/calls/messages.
Why Chrome needs control over camera? Why in the hell would Dead Trigger need control over camera?! Why Facebook have control for calls and pretty much everything? Why IMDB needs GPS info? Etc...
Click to expand...

I just checked these on from Google Play.

Dead Trigger does not need camera permissions. If your copy of this game does indicate camera permissions I would be suspicious. Did you download it from Play?
IMDB only needs approximate network based location info, not GPS, which I would assume it needs for its showing near you feature.
Chrome probably needs picture and camera permissions for when uploading to photo sharing sites.
The FB app does a lot of things, like taking pictures, sharing location, auto-login to FB so it needs accounts, probably needs calls permission to knows to quit when your receiving or making a call. I very rarely us FB myself, and just use their mobile site and not the app.

If you have any more concerns about possible suspicious permissions, post them here, or you could even contact the devs concerned and see what they have to say about it. Sometimes devs can be lazy and turn everything on.

Here's one I'd be suspicious of, which is for wallpaper, i.e. an app that's only supposed to make your phone look pretty.
Your location
approximate location (network-based)
precise location (GPS and network-based)
Network communication
full network access
view network connections
view Wi-Fi connections
receive data from Internet
Phone calls
read phone status and identity
Storage
modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
Bookmarks and History
read your Web bookmarks and history
Your accounts
find accounts on the device
System tools
modify system settings
test access to protected storage
Affects battery
control vibration
prevent device from sleeping
 
I think they nailed it here:

" In Google's defense, the company does a good job catching malicious titles submitted to the Play store, and in the event of misses, it quickly removes trojans as soon as they become known. With no more than 50 downloads of Parental Control, it's possible that the app had few, if any, victims. Google also endows Android phones with the ability to be purged of installed apps that are later discovered to be harmful."


The $300 service that bakes this trojan into an app is a bigger worry, but really only for those markets such as China that don't have access to Google Play
 
Good link. Yes, it is scary.

For my part, knowing why the permission is needed is almost irrelevant. If the permission is there, it can be abused. If you wouldn't trust a total stranger to have this group of permissions to your phone, then don't grant them to a dev that's a total stranger to you.

And it's not just the single permission but the combination of permissions. It's ok for app to take a picture as long as it has no way to phone home.

Firewall may give you some sense of control over some of the privacy concerns although perhaps not perfect. I use afwall + (requires root). If an app doesn't have need to go to the internet I don't let it. Apps that themselves have root access can bypass that protection though.
 
Im maybe a rare case because i dont have much for anyone to steal and i dont value my privacy much lol. If someone wants to watch me use the bathroom then good luck to them.
If i had kids i think id be a lot more paranoid about this stuff :beer:
 
As a practical matter companies don't really spy on you through apps-- as in using your camera, listening in you your phone/text/email conversations, etc. Companies don't have time to spy on millions of people that way. They'd quickly get caught and go to jail. Or at the very least, the app would quickly get a bad reputation and likely be banned from any reputable store (like Google Play or Amazon).

On the other hand, when you put your contacts on Gmail, then Google gets LOTS of personal (contact) information about EVERYONE you know-- and of course the fact that you know them. (That's why I keep my contacts in Hotmail, not Gmail. Google has said that they'll use your contact information for marketing, whereas Microsoft has said that they won't.) And when you use apps like Google Navigation or Google-owned Waze, then Google knows when and where you go (and therefore, for example where you live, shop, work, ski, play golf, etc.) And if you use Gmail, then Google scans for keywords and knows about your interests, politics, etc. And if you use Google search (or any Google browser, like the Android browser or Chrome) or you "like us on Facebook" then Google & Facebook know all about your interests, etc. Of course all of Google's & Facebook's type of spying is arguably innocuous and designed to sell you stuff through more targeted advertising.

It always cracks me up that people fret about the government (like the NSA) is spying on them (as if the government could possible care or have time to "spy" on 300 million people). But those same people have no problem uploading their entire database of personal contacts to Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, et al, (thereby compromising their own and their friends' privacy) and giving all kinds of personal information to Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, et al.
 
I dont mind google knowing about me though. Targeted ads are far better than random ones imo.
As you kind of said, if a big company was using our data in a bad way, it would quickly go out of business.
Google just want to advertise :)

i agree though about people fretting about the NSA lol :beer:
 
RazzMaTazz said:
It always cracks me up that people fret about the government (like the NSA) is spying on them (as if the government could possible care or have time to "spy" on 300 million people). But those same people have no problem uploading their entire database of personal contacts to Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, et al, (thereby compromising their own and their friends' privacy) and giving all kinds of personal information to Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, et al.
Click to expand...

It doesn't crack me up. I consent through EULA to allow them. Google doesn't put a gun to my head. I have the choice to bow out with Google/etc, but not the NSA. There's a big difference, and including "It always cracks me up" tends to push this toward a PCA discussion vs permissions.

it's important to realize all iOS apps have these permissions, too, evne if they don't tell you about it. So will Blackberry devices.
 
dibblebill said:
I consent through EULA to allow them. Google doesn't put a gun to my head. I have the choice to bow out with Google/etc, but not the NSA.
Click to expand...
You have the choice to avoid NSA data gathering by not using a phone. You (and 99.9999999% of people) can avoid government targeting by not breaking the law but you can't avoid Google's targeting.

For me, the problem is that other people (like my friends) give Google, Facebook, et al, my personal information, and those corporations use that information to target me even though I never agreed to it.

dibblebill said:
There's a big difference, and including "It always cracks me up" tends to push this toward a PCA discussion vs permissions.
Click to expand...
What's "PCA"?
 
Agreed. Let's hold off on the NSA stuff in this thread OK?

We've got the Politics and Current Affairs section of the forum if anyone would like to address that directly (and there's already an ongoing discussion there :) )
 
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