The last thing I want is a webpage being able to access bluetooth, notifications or any sensor data. No, more permission dialogs is also not what I want.
And how is having the same developer do it via a native application any different? Permission controls for browser can be managed the same way they are being managed for native apps. In fact, once a web app is allowed to register itself as an app, you will be able to centrally view permissions from your existing permission manager settings in your respective operating system.
If others read the section on Bluetooth it outlines how poor native protections are.
Full integration of web app settings into the OS is essential for users to be able to control their privacy.
When I create a document locally, or copy a photo from my camera to my computer, I'm responsible for how far it leaks, and it's fairly easy to manage and understand.
When I create similar data in a web app, I have no control over what happens to it.
How is "privacy worse on native"?
I think the key here is "trusted". That's the bit that needs work. Vendors need to work on their trust; our industry needs to work on its architectures and business models.
They can't evolve the way the latter did. "New API every year or we break your app" is not an option for the web.
As a user, what drives me crazy is the absence of "human interface guidelines" and sane local storage. On the other hand, I insist on the freedom to sideload.
As a developer, I pine for an application platform that is not a 30-year-old messy abstraction over a 50-year-old operating system. If it can help my layouts on a 5" vs 50" screen, all the better.
Permission dialogs are a small price to pay for enabling entire categories of applications! For example, consider WebMIDI: there are huge number of web apps that use the new standard, ranging from online DAWs to hardware device management tools (like the new Noise Engineering Imitor Versio firmware tool). It's clear as day that Apple declining to implement these standards is holding back the web, and leading to platform fragmentation.
Yes, let's prevent fingerprinting with privacy-protecting implementations, but apps should be able to use these awesome features with permission.
It's huge price to pay considering the number of permissions required, complexity of it all, and potential consequences when a frustrated user just clicks "yes" to all
A web app should wait until it needs Geolocation or whatever, before prompting you. It should always follow a user interaction. When you click to use some feature, then it prompts you for the permission.
Or an app could have some kind of introductory page where it lists the permissions that it will need, and you click each one that you want to give. Again you do this at your leisure, not upon page load.
Apple's not going to just drop in a change that makes you go through popup and notification hell.
I'm 100% certain Apple would give users control to enable or disable features on a per site/pwa basis.