Hacker News Reader

Comment by rsync | Hacker News Reader

I know I sound like a broken record but I really do think app stores owe us the ability to see, in advance, what permissions an app will request.

I shouldn’t have to download and install the app just to see what kind of behaviors it is going to attempt.

The app stores know this information and it would be trivially easy to present it in the details of the app prior to down loading.

View on HN

> I know I sound like a broken record but I really do think app stores owe us the ability to see, in advance, what permissions an app will request.

Beyond what Apple already does? https://imgur.com/a/ouEqiGG

This only covers what data apps store/collect. An app can have a clean 'Privacy' disclaimer ("The developer does not collect any data from this app") but still require access to Photos, Camera, Location, etc.

In the Play store it is possible to see what permissions are required and data is collected.

I wonder if it is possible, as an Apple developer, to query "permissions requested" via some other channel ?

I don't know anything about the ways Apple developers interface with the app store to submit or update or index their apps ... is it through xcode ?

I wonder if there is some function in that toolchain that actually does what I am proposing ...

This is possible and relatively easy for Apple to do: for most (if not all) permissions, a declaration that you intend to ask for permission is required in the app's Info.plist manifest file.

When permission is requested and you've forgotten to declare that your app asks for it, the permission will be immediately denied without prompting the user.

Yeah, this should absolutely be standard.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com