Comment by revelation | Hacker News Reader

Comment by revelation | Hacker News Reader

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Just for completeness sake and judging from the function names, this is the list, with attributes stored for each:

- Accounts log (Email)

- App Activity (Name, PackageName, Process Number of activity, Processed id)

- App Data Usage (Cache size, code size, data size, name, package name)

- App Install (installed at, name, package name, unknown sources enabled, version code, version name)

- Battery (health, level, plugged, present, scale, status, technology, temperature, voltage)

- Device Info (board, brand, build version, cell number, device, device type, display, fingerprint, ip, mac address, manufacturer, model, os platform, product, sdk code, total disk space, unknown sources enabled)

- GPS (accuracy, altitude, latitude, longitude, provider, speed)

- MMS (from number, mms at, mmss type, service number, to number)

- NetData (bytes received, bytes sent, connection type, interface type)

- PhoneCall (call duration, called at, from number, phone call type, to number)

- SMS (from number, service number, sms at, sms type, to number)

- TelephonyInfo (cell tower id, cell tower latitude, cell tower longitude, imei, iso country code, local area code, meid, mobile country code, mobile network code, network name, network type, phone type, sim serial number, sim state, subscriber id)

- WifiConnection (bssid, ip, linkspeed, macaddr, networkid, rssi, ssid)

- WifiNeighbors (bssid, capabilities, frequency, level, ssid)

- Root Check (root staus code, root status reason code, root version, sig file version)

- Malware Info (algorithm confidence, app list, found malware, malware sdk version, package list, reason code, service list, sigfile version)

Or, put differently, I really don't see any reason for Google not to immediately remove this app from the store permanently and ban whatever developer uploaded it. There should probably be legal action.

Edit: I've augmented the various types of data retrieved (ie: there is capability in the source to read, save and transmit this data) from the inauth framework sources.

> I really don't see any reason for Google not to immediately remove this app

Apart from Google being an investor in Uber?

After all the recent scandals in Uber, how has Google not pushed for a complete overhaul of Uber's leadership already? It has become pretty clear the current leadership has some "issues".

Well I mean, is it actually causing any problems for Uber?

Uber has what's pretty close to a monopoly in what it offers, apart from a few cities in the US where Lyft also operates. I would say most people that user Uber are not interested in using the regular local taxi service.

I spoke to a Lyft/Uber driver today in NCY. He said that Uber's losing drivers every day here — about 5% (I don't know where he got those numbers from). He also mentioned that Uber are flat out lying about how much drivers earn, and in some months drivers that aren't on Uber's "favourites" list end up owing Uber for renting the gear instead of earning money.

This reputation is definitely damaging, and it's common knowledge here. Drivers bitch about it. They recommend Lyft.

I'm always very cautious of taking what opinion from HN (and others in 'tech') and extrapolating them out to the general population, so I read what you say (and my own opinion) with a grain of salt.

But like, Uber is in 230 cities around the world. Here in Australia I believe they added over 1000 new drivers over the past month. Here, Uber is the alternative. There is no Lyft or Sidecar - mainly because alternatives are too scared of legal action from government - ridesharing is essentially illegal here, but Uber plays the we're-waiting-for-the-law-to-catch-up card regardless.

How would a driver come about these numbers? And 5% per day? Pretty sure you were talking to someone not in the know.

I'm sure the turnover for Uber is high. I would expect that for that type of job, regardless of the apparent ethical makeup of the company's executives.

"the gear" huh? Exactly what "gear" do they rent?

well technically speaking google venture invested in uber

That's a multihundredmillion reason to cut them some slack ;)

It might be worth taking the hit...

If anything, that might make them pull it quicker.

If the analysis holds up, it would be very bad publicity to appear complicit.

> I really don't see any reason for Google not to immediately remove this app from the store permanently and ban whatever developer uploaded it

The original article is down, but do they somehow bypass the Android permission authorization process? Or the user still has to authorize the app to access all the resources?

They do need to ask for these permissions at install time. But as another user here pointed out, they do have legitimate reasons to ask for most of them to provide the functionality of the app.

The issue is that they're phoning all this information home, when the user might only be expecting it to be retrieved while the app is in use and only as needed.

Seriously? You mean, information that 1. Google makes available via API and 2. You agreed to when you installed the app is now means for Google to take legal action?

You're deluded. If you don't like this, stop using Android. I did.

Well it's very popular among users. Removing it from the store immediately and/or permanently seems likely to get some backlash from the user base.

The same could be said about a lot of things that are harmful to users.

Huh, really? That sounds almost like something Apple would do.

A lot of apps collect this information. There are flashlight apps that collect the same level. This is nothing new.

That doesn't mean it's good for users or for users or for Android's reputation as an app ghetto. Some means of scoring apps down for needless permissions would be a good thing.

Yeah, it does suck that you need to install the app before you can rate it. I mean...I understand why they would do this in an attempt to limit review gaming but in this case I often have to install something if I want to give it a bad review. In reality, I just don't install it and move on.

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