Why should installing e.g. the facebook app, allow it to track my position at all times? Just freaky.
> Encryption of specific secrets for each app
Not sure what you mean by this, but apps are already sandboxed and can't access each other's data. What specific threat are you trying to protect against?
> Fine grained control of what information is shared with apps
Already exists.
> Ability to selectively deny particular data (and have the app keep working, e.g by giving it an empty contacts list, fake phone ID, etc)
Already exists. Not with fake data though; you just deny the permission and the app has to deal with it.
> Ad and js blocking capable browser
There already are _several_ browsers on Android that do that. Unless you mean you want it in Chrome specifically?
> Why should installing e.g. the facebook app, allow it to track my position at all times?
It doesn't. That only occurs when you grant it the location permission.
This is the main reason I root my phone and use XPrivacy. After using XPrivacy, Android permission seems stupid. I can't go back to that.
* Bunch of permissions are grouped together into CATEGORIES and the app gets all if I allow that category.
You can update permissions on types of notifications, location, storage, contacts etc. all independently of each other. O is great for that and I assume P will only be better.
* Give an app access to only save, not read my photos * Give an app ability to read one specific photo (think upload a photo to facebook) * Take pictures without always having access to the camera.
That is fine grained.
You just choose to use apps which instead request you give them permissions to whole photo storage.
Saying that I can just choose to use apps that do it "the right way" is the same as saying "you can just not use a smart phone". I can see the value in smart phones and in popular apps. What I'm asking for it a pragmatic choice where the OS puts me in charge, because it's not working to just ask the developers to play nicely.
https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/deve...
For most apps (unless I'm wrong?) there's no way to let the app use my location without it going through Google's location services and sending data back to the Borg Cube.
presto - no google - only actual GPS signals used. But good luck - you'll see just how terrible GPS is indoors and in urban canyons. Without wifi and BLE augmentation it truly sucks.
1) Using visible WiFi networks to determine location sends data to Google to use their geolocation database. Your suggestion here does stop this (assuming you meant to DE-select "always high accuracy" and instead select "device only" which uses the GPS without sending any data offboard.)
2) Google pushes the use of Google Play location services API over Android's location services system API. These services don't work unless you grant Google Play Services permission to use your location. Since Google Play Services also needs network access, you effectively have to grant Google access to your location in order to use any location services whatsoever in any application.
It's the second point to which I was referring in my post above.
Googles insistence on capturing as much data as possible about me is just creepy. I disabled voice search, location history, and everything else I could. Switching to DuckDuckGo made a big difference, but still the data gets swallowed up.
I know that Apple is only slightly better - but I’ll take whatever privacy I can get.
iOS has a fine-grained permission setting for this - you can decide whether to allow the app to access location or not when it's not in foreground, i.e "While Using the App".
Similarly, I have decided not to use many Dropbox apps that need R/W permission to entire Dropbox instead of any one folder that I can choose.
I think we kind of need to show these apps and services their place, so to speak.
No, they won't willingly destroy a major revenue source.
Install something like Netguard (same dev behind Xprivacy) -- which functions as a firewall (vpn) b/w apps and the internet. Turn on logging. Watch all the apps you have installed phoning home and services like graph.facebook.com every few moments.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/7/17328758/amazon-alexa-defa...
I can’t even disable this Google bloatware on a stock phone (Nexus 5X)
Also, you've once again conflated "stock" with Google phone. If you use more precise terminology, you won't be so confused.
Yet I can still not disable these Google apps.
EDIT: Screenshot https://i.k8r.eu/4ZLdMA
If you were able to disable the apps and then uninstall the the new launcher, your phone would be unusable until you did a factory reset from recovery.
And they take up space in my launcher.
Please stop spreading FUD :(
you mean something like ios keychain? what does this do that can't be achieved using disk encryption + sandbox?
>Ad and js blocking capable browser.
firefox for android
Because once the phone is booted and unlocked by the user there is no further protection. Do you keep your phone turned off?
Also the lack of device pairing means it is usually easy to dump the encrypted image and crack the pass code quite quickly.
https://blog.elcomsoft.com/2017/10/ios-vs-android-physical-d...
> firefox for android
I find it quite slow, slower than chrome downloading all the ads. But it is an option I guess. It won't get wider uptake though, the default platform browser is the main game.
Ublock has been fantastic on Firefox for me, even though Firefox isn't as good as Chrome.