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Comment by umrashrf | Hacker News Reader

I am surprised because google review team rejects half of my extensions and apps.

Sometimes things don't make sense to me, like how "Uber Driver app access background location and there is no way to change that from settings" - https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/783227

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If Google would care at all for their users, they'd tell WhatsApp to not require the use of the Contacts permission only to add names to numbers when you don't share the Contacts with the App.

Or they'd tell WhatsApp to allow granting microphone permissions for one single call, instead of requesting permanent microphone permissions. All apps that I know of respect the flow of "Ask every time", all but Meta's app.

Google just doesn't care.

That's all opinionated, and the latter is part of the OS, not WhatsApp. Not liking how an app works does not compare to an app exfiltrating data without your consent.

Let me explain: my WhatsApp has no privileges granted. So when a call comes in, which is a very rare thing, I get asked to grant the microphone permission. So I grant it, but only for one time, and when Android hands back focus to WhatsApp, it won't just make use of the microphone, but re-ask for microphone access, so you go into the permissions intent but there it is already set to "only this time". Only if i change it to "when I am using the app", then it works, but that is not acceptable for me, because that background use is a passive use, which can access the microphone. This means that WhatsApp can enable the mic whenever it likes, which it cannot do if "only this time" is selected. But the app is against that. I do not know how they do this, but that is what happens.

They are not comparing it to the data issue. The original issue was lead to further conversation. It’s a valid concern and they make a good point.

I wish there was another button on those contact permission boxes which would tell the app you've granted permissions. But when they try to read your contacts, send them randomly generated junk. Fake phone numbers. Fake names.

Or even better, mix in some real names and phone numbers but change all the other details. I want data brokers to think I live in 8 different countries. I want my email address to show up for 50 different identities. Good luck sorting that out.

I think what's going on there is that "While using" includes when a navigation app is running in the background, which is visible to the user (via e.g. a blue status bar pill). "Always" allows access even when it's not clear to the user that an app is running.

The developer documentation is actually pretty clear about this: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/ch...

This might be a case of app permissions just being poorly delineated. E.g. I've seen Android apps require "location data" access just because they want to connect over bluetooth or manage WiFi or something (not entirely sure which one it was specifically) because that is actually the same permission and the wording in the permission modal is misleading.

They are the same permission because you can guess the user’s location using Bluetooth and WiFi.

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