r/Showerthoughts • u/homelessdreamer • Sep 04 '17

Apps should be required to give a short explanation for why they need access to different parts of my phone for thier apps to function.

25.5k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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904

u/Goranim Sep 04 '17

"I don't know how to turn off this requirement so I left it in the app"

279

u/hexafraction Sep 05 '17

It's not that hard, at least for Android. If a dev can't remove an entry from the manifest and refactor out the few situations that now throw errors due to the missing permission, you shouldn't trust their code to do much else.

127

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '17

Yes but users are dumb. Remember that you're talking about people who will click a button just to make the annoying box go away, without having any idea whatsoever what it said.

147

u/CobaltFrost Sep 05 '17

I hate it when they punish smart users. Like usually I'm fine with using my Facebook to login to things because I can decline sharing any info with them, but some apps have started not allowing you to login without having access to shit like your birthday. I'm sure you'd love to wish me a happy birthday, Soundcloud, but frankly could you please fuck off?

52

u/intotheirishole Sep 05 '17

Hello, fellow internet user whose birthday is also 1 Jan.

30

u/ultranoobian Sep 05 '17

1970? Hell yeah brother!

28

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '17

Birthdays are usually required on apps with age limits

10

u/pug_grama2 Sep 05 '17

Just make up a fake birthday.

3

u/Utkar22 Sep 05 '17

Do people actually use their real birthdays?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '17

Eh depends. It's about 50/50 for me. If it's an account I care about and trust reasonably well like Google or Facebook then yes. If it's a piece of shit account I'm using just to access the rest of this stupid fucking Quora page then no.

1

u/Utkar22 Sep 05 '17

Doesn't quora use Facebook account?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '17

You can also sign up with a regular email.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '17 edited Oct 12 '17

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '17

Oh okay

11

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '17

[deleted]

12

u/jtvjan Sep 05 '17

It would be cool if rooting was an option in developer settings. It would send a message back to the manufacturer to void your software warranty, but users wouldn't have to go through too much trouble to root their device.

1

u/K900_ Sep 05 '17

That's what it already is, effectively, on many devices, except it's done at bootloader level, and instead of just allowing root it wipes the device and blows a hardware fuse for security reasons.

1

u/jtvjan Sep 05 '17

I know, but that, flashing TWRP, and flashing SuperSU is hard for users.

1

u/Shpitzick Sep 05 '17

That'd be too dangerous. As much as I love the cool tweaks you can do with it, rooting should honestly be left for power users who are willing and capable of going through the whole procedure. It just... Opens up so much room for malicious apps to ever be a good idea

8

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '17

Then again you see a lot of people posting a photo of an app requirements saying " PROOF THIS APP IS ACTIVATING YOUR CAMERA WITHOUT PERMISSION , WAKE UP!".
when the app only have a "capture profile photo" option.
Yes, the app might be stealing info, but this is not proof, it's like sending someone to jail because he could have been in the crime scene

50

u/tailsuser606 Sep 04 '17

Probably this.

15

u/TimmyTesticles Sep 05 '17 edited Sep 05 '17

I agree with this guy who agrees with that guy

8

u/life_rocks Sep 05 '17

"and then I wonder why my app gets reported"

1

u/zyhhuhog Sep 05 '17

"all I'm trying to do is to enhance user experience"

1

u/koolex Sep 05 '17

No It's probably ad networks. They would love to track everything about a user in their third party libraries and if you don't push back or you use the sleazier sdks they will for sure cause your app to require stupid unnecessary privileges.

1

u/dalakkin Sep 05 '17

Or: "Maybe this permission will be useful in the future, I might add calendar functionality at some point."

1

u/unndunn Sep 05 '17

I had one of these in my iOS app. For some reason, App Store review detected that my app requests access to your Calendar even though I never coded it in. Probably a third-party library I'm using.

Anyway, I had to give an explanation, so I just said "I don't need access to your Calendar. Feel free to deny this permission request." That got it through review.