We just launched OpenSignal 2.0 for Android
opensignal.com
opensignal.com
There seems to be a lot of "tin foil hat" responses here regarding permissions and personal information. I'm an Android developer with a top selling app that uses a TON of permissions (it features a bunch of system utility switches & stats).
There's nothing I see about OpenSignal being a malicious app, but a lot of responses seem to presume otherwise despite OpenSignal team members being present and responsive here.
What justifies the hard, negative position?
I'm really very curious. What's the deal, please?
Simply inquiring about how/why this information is used/asked for does not imply that we're having a 'hard negative reaction'. It just means that we're aware of our right to privacy and are actively trying to assert and protect it.
Personally, I applaud the OpenSignal developers being active here and answering questions. Also, just because you might not be using the information you collect in your apps for nefarious purposes doesn't mean that nobody does. Finally, I don't expect you or anyone else to be the guardians of my privacy. Only I can be charged with that task.
Privacy is something we take very seriously at OpenSignal. For one, we watched CarrierIQ get torn apart[1] after it came to light the types of data that they were collecting of their users. Its obvious to us that if we ever abused our user's privacy the same thing would happen to us, so not only do we consider ourselves moral people there are clear market forces from preventing us from using your private data, which might be more reassuring to some.
We also only look at data related to your wireless service e.g. signal strength, data speeds etc and always anonymize it. It's worth remembering that not too long ago studies found that 50% of top android apps were tracking and collecting personal data[2] such as IMEIs, phone numbers, sms etc and these are not crowd-sourced data gathering apps, this was a random sample of the top 30 android apps at the time of the study. With that in mind, we don't begrudge anyone who wants to check our privacy standards are up to scratch.
[1] http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/01/carrier-iq-how-to-find-it-a... [2] http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/30/study-select-android-apps...
That's the idea :) but a few things to note: 1. All data is anonymized 2. You can turn data-sharing off in the settings (as pointed out when you start the app) 3. Providing data to the networks is not only a funding source for our efforts to build coverage maps online (which will always be free and independent at opensignal.com) but it allows the networks to improve their service - showing them where their service is weak, or where they should focus their marketing.
A good example of this is Elixir 2 which has various add-ons. There are several ways of doing it depending on how deep you need the integration to be. And it provides a way to add optional future functionality.
You can get it here: http://opensignal.com/android_app/non-market-download.php
Countries that are not on Google Play usually have legal / export restrictions, do they not?
1) I'm unclear what I'm supposed to enter on the plan details screen's "billing date".
My last bill covered 2012-12-10 through 2013-01-09. Do I enter 9 or 10 there? Experimenting, it looks like you want the first day in the next bill, so 10.
2) The time on network graph is showing a lot of time on 3g, but that's because the phone is on WiFi so it dropped the HSDPA+ connection, probably to save power. Would be nice if you could exclude when on WiFi from that chart.
1. The app allows you to swipe among screens (Dashboard, Test, Stats, Coverage, and report) but once you are in coverage/map section swipe among screens doesn't work, instead it pans the map. May be a lock should be placed in map screen to have a consistent swipe experience.
2. I am not sure how stat settings work. I use Nexus 4 with Straight Talk/ATT. It is a prepaid with $45 for everything unlimited. I pay on 7th of each month. Allowances and Traffic settings in both Contract and pre-paid revert back to default settings. I can't change top-up date in pre-paid settings. Data/Call/SMS monitoring settings can be more intuitive.
Thanks for coming over here and answering questions.
1. The map screen will swipe but due to the map extending to the sides of the screen, a bezel swipe is required to switch to tabs adjacent to the map tab. This was recommended to us by Google employees on the Android team, so I imagine it's relatively standard practice.
2. We'll take a look at this. When you look into the different types of contract and pre-paid plans out there the functionality and settings rapidly became very complex. Once we get a bit more feedback from users we'll do some work to simplify them.