Comment by tgsovlerkhgsel
21 days ago
It absolutely has to do with ads. While there are various ways to exfiltrate small amounts of data, the non-collaborative ones are rarely silent and most importantly, they won't let the app get responses (e.g. ads) back.
The main thing this permission would be used for would be blocking ads. Also distinguishing shitty apps that are full of ads from those that aren't. If there is a calculator that needs Internet and one that doesn't, which one are you going to use?
> The main thing this permission would be used for would be blocking ads.
This permission has existed for longer than runtime permissions. You have never been able to revoke it, it was just something you agreed to when you installed the app or you didn't install the app.
It was "removed" in that era because if every app requests the same permission, then nobody cares about it anymore. When every app asks for the same thing, users stop paying attention to it. So no, it had fuck all to do with ads because that was never a thing in the first place. And ad blocking doesn't require this permission, either.
> Also distinguishing shitty apps that are full of ads from those that aren't. If there is a calculator that needs Internet and one that doesn't, which one are you going to use?
You can still use it for this. Apps are required to declare the permission still, it's listed on the Play Store under the "permissions" section. Similarly the OS reports the same thing. Presumably F-droid or whatever else also has a list of permissions before you install, and it'll be listed there.
Although Google's own Calculator app requires Internet permission. Take that for what's it worth.