How much do you care about privacy

[gevertex]

I've noticed that lots of free apps ask for permissions which allow them to collect information from your phone. The app developer then can sell this information as marketing data. These apps have lots of downloads.

Do people care about this at all? Do you ever pay a couple $ for an app that claims to be secure and doesn't collect your information?

Just curious how people think about this kind of thing. I myself am a bit wary, but have in the past just gotten the free app. But wouldn't it be worth just a few $ to keep your information for yourself?

 

[trsbbs]

A lot. Came from BlackBerry to Android. Wow! Lots of apps working in the background. Even FaceBook. . Running either a firewall or VPN now. Disabled a bunch of bloatware too.

 

[gevertex]

A lot. Came from BlackBerry to Android. Wow! Lots of apps working in the background. Even FaceBook. . Running either a firewall or VPN now. Disabled a bunch of bloatware too.

That is interesting to hear. I am an app developer. Privacy is something that comes up a lot in our discussions about how apps should be created. It's something that I'm also very conscious of.

Have you ever paid for an app when a free one was available because the paid app claimed not to collect your information?

 

[Hatchi Sabornidod]

Piracy should be taken a serious action, specially now a days! Its a crime that should be resolve immediately!

 

[Little Darwin]

I don't assume I have any privacy unless I am in my home, and have all electronics powered off and unplugged. Otherwise I assume that if someone wants to know where I am or what I am doing, and they have the resources, they will know.

 

[gevertex]

I don't assume I have any privacy unless I am in my home, and have all electronics powered off and unplugged. Otherwise I assume that if someone wants to know where I am or what I am doing, and they have the resources, they will know.

That's probably true to an extent. But I think with the vast amount of information out there, most people will be lost in the haystack so to speak. Unless you are someone particularly interesting.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Little Darwin]

That's probably true to an extent. But I think with the vast amount of information out there, most people will be lost in the haystack so to speak. Unless you are someone particularly interesting.

Posted via the Android Central App

That is my thought. My life is far too boring for anyone to have anyone interested in it.

 

[TucsonChuck]

It's not just our cell phone, just think how much our internet providers know about us... And they retain the information for how long now?

 

[Yves Hohler]

As a developer i can guarantee that the most data that the user agree to share when the app is about to be installed on the phone will not be accessible by the developer himself.

A lot of the information are from third party plugins like advertising provider or analytics.
So that bring us to the real deal, this information are used to bring to you what really matters to you, in terms of products, services and define a better sell target.

 

[trsbbs]

As a developer i can guarantee that the most data that the user agree to share when the app is about to be installed on the phone will not be accessible by the developer himself.

A lot of the information are from third party plugins like advertising provider or analytics.
So that bring us to the real deal, this information are used to bring to you what really matters to you, in terms of products, services and define a better sell target.

And I do not want this invasion of privacy to happen. Period. Thus I do not install free items, no games and run a firewall preventing much of the background spying. . It's sad people try to justify something this invasive. . Little by little they desensitize you to it.

 

[Yves Hohler]

I am not justifying, i am explaining what's happening The most of the time the developer has no choice if he/she needs to include third party sdk.
And this is not only with the free apps and games...

 

[profkefah]

when u live in war zone privacy will be the first thing u care about

for me as i live in iraq
and i may post something against terrorst or against govermant
then any info those people got about me
then i will be dead
for me as beginner
i prefer using email address then phone number in many app
also i may sometimes have to use IP changer so i can surf safely thru internet
sorry for my broken english

 

[gevertex]

Wow, that is a little scary. Definitely be careful and stay safe.

when u live in war zone privacy will be the first thing u care about

for me as i live in iraq
and i may post something against terrorst or against govermant
then any info those people got about me
then i will be dead
for me as beginner
i prefer using email address then phone number in many app
also i may sometimes have to use IP changer so i can surf safely thru internet
sorry for my broken english

And I do not want this invasion of privacy to happen. Period. Thus I do not install free items, no games and run a firewall preventing much of the background spying. . It's sad people try to justify something this invasive. . Little by little they desensitize you to it.

So, also as a developer (this is true of ALL developers). I DO have access to any information provided by permissions in the app. All developers do. However, most of the time these permissions are required for some feature to work properly. I'm not interested at all in storing or using anyone's personal information apart from it's use directly by the app that requires it.

For instance, a camera app needs access to your camera and your photos. Camera so we can take pictures, photos so we can save them and display pictures in the app. This means a developer COULD download all of your images and some might. My apps do not take advantage of permissions like this.

 

[syspry]

That's pretty scary honestly.

 

[Parasol]

i've developed an app Parasol to solve the permission problem, especially for Android M.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/be...asoli-privacy-advisor-permission-manager.html
you guys can have a try if interested in it, and i will appreciate any feedback.

 

[8livesleft]

I am not justifying, i am explaining what's happening The most of the time the developer has no choice if he/she needs to include third party sdk.
And this is not only with the free apps and games...

I guess that's the tradeoff. No such thing as "free" in this case, we pay with information access.

What needs to be done is advertiser screening to make sure they're not using the info for anything other than ad targeting. They should definitely not be selling the info.

Sent from my LG-H818 using Tapatalk

 

[Sizzers]

I've accepted that I don't have any, which is why my life isn't stored on the web or on my phone.

 

[Carrtman]

I take it very seriously , firewall, VPN and rooting is very important for me. I'd like to make my devices mine and not having the feeling of just renting them. Part of this is getting rid of bloatware and other data collecting stuff. I also like to keep my stuff locally and will ever never trust the cloud.

Apps like XPrivacy, TBP and boot managers are must haves for me. I don't think a music app needs to have a camera, sms or contact reading permission. it's about time that Android is including this stuff with Android Marshmallows.

Something that also pisses me is if apps are asking me constantly to create an account i.e Tapatalk and their damn tapatalk I'D. If I would create an account every time an app asks me to do so I'd have more accounts than apps and was less security or course.

Sure the don't be an ***** mantra will always be part of security but there must be a reason why some operating systems I.e Windows 10 (just read the AT story how MS is trying to force it on users), Apple (IBeacon seems very scary ) try to force users into the cloud and no the reasons are not convenience it's collecting data, sell it to advertisers and create profiles and play NSA bff. Do people honestly believe voice control can't work without third party online services? I don't and there is no reason to keep a record of my voice requests!

Although it's only slightly related months ago Samsung issued a statement that users of their smart TV should think about what they are saying in front of the TV because it's always listening - yeah thanks but no I prefer my dumb offline TV.


So long story short I believe especially after the Snowden report security and privacy are more important than ever. So if there are tools helping me with that I'll always pay good money for it.

 

[Tweeky99]

I can't help but think that sooner or later we'll all just forget about the issue of privacy and accept that we get a lot of stuff for free in exchange for sharing some information about ourselves. To me it seems a pretty reasonable deal. But, as has been remarked, it also seems fair enough to have the option of paying for privacy for those that are not happy with sharing their information. It's not like it would be difficult for these big companies and developers to do.

 

[syspry]

I care about security exploits, but where privacy is concerned my view is that someone who claims to be a hardcore privacy person wouldn't own a smartphone at all, regardless of make or brand. There's not really any way to completely lock a smartphone down to the point where there is zero marketing, government, or carrier intrusiveness without turning it into basically a dumbphone with a full screen display. If you're just cherry picking a few things to attempt to block out but leaving others open because it's "inconvenient" not to, you're basically a pretender IMO. In order to totally lock down a smartphone from snooping, you'd have to be extremely minimal with your installed apps, intimately know the permissions and code of each one you do install, run a VPN, and find a browser that allows you to truly block every form of web script out there as powerful as the ones available on a PC (there aren't any though). Hence why I say if that's your stance on privacy and you still own a smartphone you're kind of contradicting yourself.

Desktop PC is another story, I can lock that puppy down pretty damn good without losing too much functionality over the internet much easier than a phone simply because there's a lot of powerful x86 software out there for that but it's still extra work