[connectwise]

Quote:

Yesterday, we published a blog post lauding an extremely important app privacy feature that was added in Android 4.3. That feature allows users to install apps while preventing the app from collecting sensitive data like the user's location or address book.

After we published the post, several people contacted us to say that the feature had actually been removed in Android 4.4.2, which was released earlier this week. Today, we installed that update to our test device, and can confirm that the App Ops privacy feature that we were excited about yesterday is in fact now gone.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/12/google-removes-vital-privacy-features-android-shortly-after-adding-them

Few day old news. Basically "Google told EFF that the feature was included in 4.3 by accident, claiming the control was experimental and could ultimately break apps policed by it." But as I saw more NSA news and didn't see people post his so thought android users might find this noteworthy.

 

[s-x]

Im sure it will come back, Why would the android team develop and then accidentally let it into a final build if it wasnt something that google wanted to have? Their reasoning is pretty legitimate if you ask me, whats worse than overzealous permissions in apps? Having hundreds of thousands of apps that dont work because the user is also overzealous and revokes the right to all the permissions, and cant figure out why the app wont work.

Google will bring it back, and if they dont, custom roms will. This is just people freaking out about all the NSA junk that shouldnt have surprised anyone, but it did. Remember carrieriq? That was on the majority of phones, and without a custom rom, you couldnt remove it. It was on Sprint, and T-Mobile and Apple, HTC, and Samsung phones. Even today it is still in use by companies like sprint. I

its a pointless battle, the only way your life will be private is if you live off the grid in a cave and never come out, or if every government agency agrees on privacy laws and cracks down on the use in big business, which will never happen. Welcome to the 21st century where you lose your privacy at the cost of all this amazing new technology. I wont be surprised if in the next decade or so people give up on the notion of most privacy for things like remotely monitored vital signs, larger adoption of under the skin rfid chips with your ssn#,healthcare, and health information on it, autonomous cars, whatever. The privacy battle was lost before anyone even saw it coming, where was the outrage decades ago when the internet first became popular, and spy satellites were launched into space? What about when there used to be an operator connecting phone lines- that could easily listen in? People arent willing to give up technology for privacy, and when you cant give up your phone, or gps, or laptop, youre not fighting, you're just complaining.

/rant (sorry)

 

[Artikbot]

inb4cookedROMsbringitback.

 

[Waltibaba]

Meh, been using the Xposed Mod XPrivacy module for a while now, you can install that on any ROM (not only custom ROMs). Should make little difference to people that care about privacy, and will obviously make no difference to people that don't care.

 

[Rubers]

Im about to install 4.4.2 in a moment, but in 4.4 (in which it was actually removed, the article is wrong) you could use an xposed module, or nova launcher's custom shortcut, to access it.

All the same, I wasn't a big user of it. Sure, you could deny Facebook access to location data, but that'd stop tagging your location in posts (which is an optional Facebook thing anyway). Generally you'd break apps by doing this stuff.

 

[Pip Boy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by s-x

Im sure it will come back, Why would the android team develop and then accidentally let it into a final build if it wasnt something that google wanted to have? Their reasoning is pretty legitimate if you ask me, whats worse than overzealous permissions in apps? Having hundreds of thousands of apps that dont work because the user is also overzealous and revokes the right to all the permissions, and cant figure out why the app wont work.

Google will bring it back, and if they dont, custom roms will. This is just people freaking out about all the NSA junk that shouldnt have surprised anyone, but it did. Remember carrieriq? That was on the majority of phones, and without a custom rom, you couldnt remove it. It was on Sprint, and T-Mobile and Apple, HTC, and Samsung phones. Even today it is still in use by companies like sprint. I

its a pointless battle, the only way your life will be private is if you live off the grid in a cave and never come out, or if every government agency agrees on privacy laws and cracks down on the use in big business, which will never happen. Welcome to the 21st century where you lose your privacy at the cost of all this amazing new technology. I wont be surprised if in the next decade or so people give up on the notion of most privacy for things like remotely monitored vital signs, larger adoption of under the skin rfid chips with your ssn#,healthcare, and health information on it, autonomous cars, whatever. The privacy battle was lost before anyone even saw it coming, where was the outrage decades ago when the internet first became popular, and spy satellites were launched into space? What about when there used to be an operator connecting phone lines- that could easily listen in? People arent willing to give up technology for privacy, and when you cant give up your phone, or gps, or laptop, youre not fighting, you're just complaining.

/rant (sorry)

good rant

But seen as privacy loss is accepted by you can I have pictures of your entire family please and all their previous locations and text conversations posted on this forum. Im not fighting it or complaining .. just show me all your information otherwise its not fair because big corps have it too and they can look without explicit permission

In fact i wonder how long it will be before the first court case is heard where a random person wants the same equal rights to data, wins and everyone can see everybodys stuff ?

 

[Liranan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by s-x

Im sure it will come back, Why would the android team develop and then accidentally let it into a final build if it wasnt something that google wanted to have? Their reasoning is pretty legitimate if you ask me, whats worse than overzealous permissions in apps? Having hundreds of thousands of apps that dont work because the user is also overzealous and revokes the right to all the permissions, and cant figure out why the app wont work.

Google will bring it back, and if they dont, custom roms will. This is just people freaking out about all the NSA junk that shouldnt have surprised anyone, but it did. Remember carrieriq? That was on the majority of phones, and without a custom rom, you couldnt remove it. It was on Sprint, and T-Mobile and Apple, HTC, and Samsung phones. Even today it is still in use by companies like sprint. I

its a pointless battle, the only way your life will be private is if you live off the grid in a cave and never come out, or if every government agency agrees on privacy laws and cracks down on the use in big business, which will never happen. Welcome to the 21st century where you lose your privacy at the cost of all this amazing new technology. I wont be surprised if in the next decade or so people give up on the notion of most privacy for things like remotely monitored vital signs, larger adoption of under the skin rfid chips with your ssn#,healthcare, and health information on it, autonomous cars, whatever. The privacy battle was lost before anyone even saw it coming, where was the outrage decades ago when the internet first became popular, and spy satellites were launched into space? What about when there used to be an operator connecting phone lines- that could easily listen in? People arent willing to give up technology for privacy, and when you cant give up your phone, or gps, or laptop, youre not fighting, you're just complaining.

/rant (sorry)

Please provide us with your social security number, bank details, family records, all relevant tax records and all other documentation as you don't want your privacy and want to give them all up. You don't have anything to hide do you?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rubers]

Nice straw man, guys. That's not what he's suggesting and it's not even relevant.

But equally, if you want privacy on stuff like your bank records (you don't want the bank looking at them?) or perhaps any photos you put online then the solution is simple. Demand all your jobs be paid in cash, keep it in your house. Don't use online services like Dropbox, Facebook or Google+. Pay for a VPN to hide your IP, but suffer latency on your connection. But, you need to figure out how to sign up for an internet connection without telling the company who you are. Don't utter a single word over any telephone, ever. Don't send texts, only hand written letters. Don't visit any shop/store/institution that has CCTV. Don't travel using aeroplanes or register for the use of firearms, etc.

Not really feasible in life unless you want to live as a hermit. Unless you plan on blowing up the president or murdering thousands of people then you can live your life in relative comfort and use these services and features of life.

EDIT:

If you can't tell I don't understand these people that have feelings of indignation when Google want to target you with ads as you use their service... or haven't figured out adblockers. If a real person at Google wants to snoop on my profile and find out that I watch porn occasionally, then that's their burden, not mine.

 

[Pip Boy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rubers

Unless you plan on blowing up the president

but what if he is a mad dictator like Saddam and there are no friendly allies to help ? Just saying ...

there is no argument to 'carry on chewing the cud like good little cows while the farmer controls all your moments and movements

 

[SinfulRoad]

Or just flash a CM based rom and continue using this functionality from the built in Privacy Guard. Either way, these features to limit access for each app is amazing. Just make sure when limiting permissions in the future you don't limit a necessity for an app like say limiting the access of a Launcher to something like accessing Messages and stuff like that. It's not that it's snooping, it has to display the app and start it which is why it has that permission.

 

[Darkpriest667]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rubers

Nice straw man, guys. That's not what he's suggesting and it's not even relevant.

But equally, if you want privacy on stuff like your bank records (you don't want the bank looking at them?) or perhaps any photos you put online then the solution is simple. Demand all your jobs be paid in cash, keep it in your house. Don't use online services like Dropbox, Facebook or Google+. Pay for a VPN to hide your IP, but suffer latency on your connection. But, you need to figure out how to sign up for an internet connection without telling the company who you are. Don't utter a single word over any telephone, ever. Don't send texts, only hand written letters. Don't visit any shop/store/institution that has CCTV. Don't travel using aeroplanes or register for the use of firearms, etc.

Not really feasible in life unless you want to live as a hermit. Unless you plan on blowing up the president or murdering thousands of people then you can live your life in relative comfort and use these services and features of life.

EDIT:

If you can't tell I don't understand these people that have feelings of indignation when Google want to target you with ads as you use their service... or haven't figured out adblockers. If a real person at Google wants to snoop on my profile and find out that I watch porn occasionally, then that's their burden, not mine.

You need to put this in half the threads on OCN in the news section. Bless you Sir. God bless you and Merry Christmas. If you lived within 200 miles I would drive to you and give you a big hug and possibly a GPU. Seriously this cannot be reiterated enough.

 

[scyy]

Even though I liked that feature 4.4.2 added an even better beta feature. The new ART runtime is amazing, it has almost doubled my battery life on my Nexus 4 and improved smoothness as well.

 

[Rubers]

Quote:

Originally Posted by phill1978

but what if he is a mad dictator like Saddam and there are no friendly allies to help ? Just saying ...

there is no argument to 'carry on chewing the cud like good little cows while the farmer controls all your moments and movements

Right, but that just sounds a little, tincy, wincy bit paranoid.

I've been using the internet, mobile phones and computers for years, as well as travelling abroad using my passport, using bank accounts and various online services for years. If my life is super interesting to the NSA then I'm doing something totally wrong.

I mean, don't get me wrong. The second it becomes a thing that the government looks at your Facebook and uses a status update about speeding as evidence to convict you of a driving offence, then I'll have a problem (and I'll also keep that crap off facebook).... But Google programming bots to scan my emails to target ads at me, or there no longer being a built-in privacy thingymajiggy in Android isn't something I'm willing to start a rebellion over.

 

[shadman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rubers

Quote:

Originally Posted by phill1978

but what if he is a mad dictator like Saddam and there are no friendly allies to help ? Just saying ...

there is no argument to 'carry on chewing the cud like good little cows while the farmer controls all your moments and movements

Right, but that just sounds a little, tincy, wincy bit paranoid.

I've been using the internet, mobile phones and computers for years, as well as travelling abroad using my passport, using bank accounts and various online services for years. If my life is super interesting to the NSA then I'm doing something totally wrong.

I mean, don't get me wrong. The second it becomes a thing that the government looks at your Facebook and uses a status update about speeding as evidence to convict you of a driving offence, then I'll have a problem (and I'll also keep that crap off facebook).... But Google programming bots to scan my emails to target ads at me, or there no longer being a built-in privacy thingymajiggy in Android isn't something I'm willing to start a rebellion over.

I think you went overboard on this arguement, and I don't blame you, as the other side does. I'd like the feature included for other reasons. Yes we are tied down with the NSA and Google viewing us, but the Privacy toggle in Googles Roms are for individual apps, and this is to protect us from smaller things. Remember Androids Flashlight app that tracked people via GPS? Just unnecessary, and this feature blocks smaller fish, who will use the app to grab your phone number or personal info for malicious intent. It wouldn't be reasonable to believe I could black the NSA out with this setting, but its nice to have.

 

[Rubers]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadman

I think you went overboard on this arguement, and I don't blame you, as the other side does. I'd like the feature included for other reasons. Yes we are tied down with the NSA and Google viewing us, but the Privacy toggle in Googles Roms are for individual apps, and this is to protect us from smaller things. Remember Androids Flashlight app that tracked people via GPS? Just unnecessary, and this feature blocks smaller fish, who will use the app to grab your phone number or personal info for malicious intent. It wouldn't be reasonable to believe I could black the NSA out with this setting, but its nice to have.

I don't remember that one :/. (the torch/GPS thing). When I found out about AppOps I thought I could block things like Angry Birds from having any network access (to block those crappy ads and needless draining my battery with network activity) but it didn't do it, so I wasn't interest.

AFAIK, the Avast! app either alerts you to possible privacy problems, or it does that and lets you block them. I can't remember.

And sure it was a little OTT. There are entirely legitimate and unquestionable uses for these sorts of features and I fully support any kind of inclusion... but not when someone turns around and says all that bank info stuff that those two were getting at.

 

[Rubers]

http://www.xda-developers.com/android/bring-back-app-ops-to-android-without-breaking-art-compiler/

 

[Deadboy90]

You want true privacy? Go live in the woods with no electronics like in the early 19th century. Otherwise stop complaining.

 

[SkyNetSTI]

When are we going to see something fresher than 4.12 for the s3???

 

[Pip Boy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deadboy90

You want true privacy? Go live in the woods with no electronics like in the early 19th century. Otherwise stop complaining.

privacy is a right not a luxury

 

[edo101]

I'm still waiting for the ability to install Apps on an SD CARD!