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As long as sideloading is a thing, I don't use the Google app store. And I don't install malware like Instagram - not that it's very likely to work on my deGoogled Android cellphone.
Of course, now that fucking Google has declared war on deGoogled ROMs, what I'm saying here is pretty much a dead-end. But as of today, it's still an option.
Fuck Google.
Also, in case it bore repeating: fuck Google.
And finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Google can go fuck itself.
The devs behind GrapheneOS are aiming to eventually release phones with native support, which I imagine will involve shifting away from AOSP (especially since the endgame is definitely killing AOSP despite what the cunts at Google claim).
Hoping I can make that jump before the Trump regime makes it illegal for any tech company to not be easily exploitable by his gestapo
I do, but I sometimes wonder why I bother. In the Play store, the information is pretty frequently inaccurate. It used to be that absolutely everything was asking for every permission and collecting every form of data under the sun. These days I far more frequently see the claim that "this app doesn't collect any data" only to discover that the app will have a website with a detailed privacy policy (for the app, not the site) outlining all the data they're collecting that they theoretically aren't collecting. I really don't understand how that's allowable but it surprised me.
Typically these days I try my best only to use things I can find on fdroid. Sounds like that's about to no longer be an option next year though.
I use iphone for now but i plan to discard it and switch to graphine os or ubuntu touch. So i will be over with those spying things. Am enough of them.
Sure, Graphene OS tries it's best to limit Apps, but if you don't trust an App, you just shouldn't run it, no matter the OS.
I wish as a user I could deny app's permissions. Normally it's just something like below with no option to break certain functionality for privacy.
This app will ...
[Install] [Cancel]
It works like this on newer Android versions. A specific permission is usually asked if a certain fearure uses it.
That's the idea anyway. In practice, half the apps ask for it on first setup so (tech-illiterate) people are expecting the prompt and know to click yes next finish
It's still the developer's choice when the prompt is shown, just that it moved from AndroidManifest.xml to executable code so now they have the option to not ask until it's actually needed and handle denies gracefully (in practice, half the apps just close if not every useless thing is granted)
I also seem to remember it's a policy of Google's that permission mustn't be asked until required, but if I remember this right, I'm either not using enough of their store-vetted adware or they're not checking this properly
I don't know the state of it these days, but there was a shim layer for android called Magisk that had a plugin that would allow you to spoof permissions to apps. So the app thinks it has access to your location and contacts, but what they actually have is a random GPS coord and an empty list.
I want this to be how permissions control works, but apple and google have no incentive to give it to us.
Yes i do pay attention to it and normally wont download ones that have data collection on apps that have no need for that.
Apple requires that binaries are submitted to them prior to be ing placed on the app store. This where the app gets analyzed to see if it matches their policies etc…. Im sure there are flaws in this system but i generally trust it since its in apples favor to have this info be correct.
To answer to your question, no, most people don't. And at any case, showing a screen like that is far too late in the process. If the user has decided to install Instagram, then showing them a screen like this won't do a thing. Their mind is already made. If we want online privacy to really matter, then the question of online privacy needs to be solved higher up in political policy level in form of regulations as well as lower level in form of awareness and education. It can't be left to be done in app installation screen by individual end-users.
Good on you for being privacy conscious though.
Well i think education is the cay because if people have freedom to chose than we dont strictly need any regulations about that, exscept those that say you have to mention what will you do with data in agreement papers.
There is so much good open source software today that people should realy be more aware about what open source actualy means and why privacy is so important..
And about this screen, whenever i see interesting game on app store i check this page and refuse to install it if it looks like this.
And when i search for an app i refuse to install app like this and search further until i find app for same purpose but without data colection.
Thats why i more like to see small price on app than to see it free. Because its more likly payed app will have no data colected banner. :)
And i think thats a win win situacion both for developers and us.
That isn’t the app installation screen. It’s the store page. Where else would you show it? Telepathically to the user as soon as they think of the app?
Or maybe we shouldn't be allowing data collection and surveillance in the first place.
The website you use right now literally wouldn’t function without “data collection”.
Tell me, what data does Beehaw sell to the brokers?
Nobody said anything about selling data. You said data collection. And the fediverse is literally entirely public, so beehaw doesn’t have to do anything for your activity here to be tracked across numerous locations.
Yeah bud, very topical
This section is almost worthless. It's wholly reliant on the app developer self-reporting accurately, and honestly. We know how effective self-regulation is...
Just assume ALL apps are data harvesting, and take measures to block or sabotage that.
Not all do you even know what open source software is? Its when whole programs writen in programing language is publicly available. So for those programs we dont beleave the devs to self report corectly. We see for ourselfs what kind of code is inthere and does it colect some data or not..
Also here in app store you can see that google apps colect a lot of data while some other apps dont collect data at all.. So its not usless, meaby its not perfect but its better than nothing..
That's why I have almost no social media. but I had to choose between apple and google so right now only google has all my personal information, habits, location, interests etc...
I wouldnt say thats a choice because both companies handover their data to the same place… If you want to realy make a choice there is graphine os, and olso workin progress ubuntu touch.. Meaby for the future..
Other Data
Yeah
Instagramies are addicted to the platform. I have seen my sister and my bro-in-law, comparing their likes, etc. For context, they get likes in low double digits. It's despicable.
Heck ya I do, that’s why I don’t have an account. And I barely use that app..
It depends. If I’m looking for a new app that does task X, I look at my options and compare them against eachother using that box.
You cant really rely on it but it makes sense to be selective for apps that make an effort to No(t) Data Collected where its possible.
A more pragmatic strategy is to disable cellular data and see if it can run without internet or wifi. Apps that cant that have no actual reason it cant be done locally are out immediately but you have to buy or download it to test first i suppose.
I guess I mean to say no data collected is a good sign but I still verify and even any of this is no herge against a company who's business is selling out your interests when they and the unaware could have almost certainly made a better choice. Vote with your money and your feet or thumbs
