Comment by wasyl | Hacker News Reader

Comment by wasyl | Hacker News Reader

First thoughts: - sending data to Nokia for 'service improvement' isn't surprising, though there's an option to opt-out which (apparently) makes the app no more privacy-invading than any other launcher

- it feels very limited, I can't seem to make a shortcut in the bottom row of the icons (even though there's a gap).

- 6 apps showing as recently used is not very much. I think I open my apps from 2-3 screens faster than I draw a letter, and I use way more than 6 apps regularly

- The UI is confusing. I have two clocks, a gap in the bottom row of the icons and an indicator that suggests I can swipe between screens. But I can only swipe the clocks area, which is small (I actually had to try it couple of times before I learned how to swipe them)

- It doesn't seem to recognize polish diacritic characters, like 'Ł'

Overall I don't think the launcher will be very useful, for me at least. It's innovative and certainly useful sometimes (when you want to call someone - just start writing his name), but less friendly than Nova or even Google stock launcher

(edit) I'm certainly going to give it a shot though

That privacy policy is brutal, and it's just for their analytics and enabled unless you opt out in the settings. The application runs just fine without all of this data being sent to them. You're giving them your bookmarks, call history, contacts, favorites, gestures, app launch times, location, SMS metadata, notifications and internet searches.

https://www.zlauncher.com/privsupp.html

Hence I wrote

> there's an option to opt-out which (apparently) makes the app no more privacy-invading than any other launcher

…and some later, an update removes and ignores the option.

If opt-out happens after install, I would expect that your phonebook and such have already been transmitted before you are able to opt-out. But maybe the opt-out option occurs before/during install?

It's important to note that just because an app requests access to something doesn't mean that something is being shared with the publisher. The app could request access to favorites and contacts to be able to import them as icons into the launch area, for example.

It's important to note that while you might have granted the app permission to access your bookmarks for that purpose, it doesn't prevent them from changing that behavior in the future and you'd be none the wiser since you've already granted them the keys to the kingdom.

I'd like to see the actual uses of the requested permissions added as legally binding commitments by the app developer.

Android does this thing now (which is cool as far as it goes) where it warns you about everything an app could hypothetically do with the access it needs. It's the equivalent of getting a warning every time you install a desktop app saying, "This app could: Delete all your files; Steal your email; Record you on your webcam without your knowledge ..."

What Google could do is add a little "details" link after each requested permission, with a text field from the publisher. Like, "This permission is used to: show icons of your favorites and contacts in the launch area."

The Play Store agreements could clarify that these are legally binding commitments the publisher is making directly to the user (meaning the user could sue if the publisher lied), and require the user to re-approve if the text changed.

That wouldn't stop random developers from just lying, but it would make it pretty likely that an app from Nokia or Yahoo or Disney or whatever was only doing what it said.

I was quoting from the privacy policy, not the Android permissions interface. These are all things they collect for certain unless you opt out.

this is why android and other mobile os needs to have read/write permissions

I'm inclined to agree with you however there are as many pitfalls in making permissions too granular as their are in leaving them too broad.

That's a stupid amount of data. I kind of wish I didn't care about all that, but taking a copy of my contacts and location it just rubs me the wrong way. It's not worth it.

- It crashes when I enable/disable the 'service improvement'

- I agree it definitely lacks shortcuts. Maybe once it has learnt enough it gets better? Still insufficient to get started, event with a letter I can not get what I want.

- The shortcuts at the bottom are too small IMHO

- Seems like web history integration is limited to Chrome: I use Firefox Beta and not a single of my often-viewed pages was listed.

You can make a shortcut but it's hard! You have to long press on the icon once you've scribbled for it. Then it should become draggable.

Thanks, I got it! Only the icon is draggable, and it's draggable always (not only after you scribble for it). Very non-intuitive, I always drag the entire entry, list row for example, not the icon alone.

Isn't suprising? It should be opt-in, not opt-out.

Obviously I think it should be opt-in. I'm not surprised it isn't, though

These products can only be made if people don't opt out, otherwise there'd be no profit. And who would opt in? The only reason you can opt out is that most people won't.

So what's the business model behind a launcher app then?

Sell analytics and app usage information

So once again, the user is not the customer but the product. When will these scams stop...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com