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Comment by r0h1n

11 years ago

> And this is a pain, given that many apps these days (Facebook, Twitter) want to get your current city...

Them wanting, I can understand. But why should you give them that?

10 comments

r0h1n

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bad_user  11 years ago

Because currently it isn't optional, which is a flaw in Android's permissions system that sucks.

  • TheCraiggers  11 years ago

    Three points:

    1) Newer custom ROMs can deny permissions on a per-app basis. I understand this isn't for everyone, but I enjoy having this option very much on my own device. (I also agree with you that it should be baked into the vanilla Android, but I can understand why they wouldn't want to confuse users with that option.)

    2) Some apps will give you a choice in their own settings (if you trust that).

    3) You always have the option of just not installing an app if you don't like the permissions. There's a fair bit of apps I refuse to install/update because their permissions asking for way more than I think their feature set requires.

    • technomancy  11 years ago

      > Some apps will give you a choice in their own settings (if you trust that)

      I noticed recently that Google gives you the option of disabling "Google Location Services" which allows apps to read location when they're not running. However, disabling this causes Google Maps to refuse to read your location when it is running.

      ...And that's about when I started looking seriously at OpenStreetMaps. Sadly haven't found a good replacement yet.

      1 reply →

    • r0h1n  11 years ago

      I've been running CM since the Nexus One. I don't think it supports per-app system privileges. Unless it is hidden somewhere deep within (though I could swear I've recursively been through their entire settings tree).

      May I ask which ROMs you are referring to?

      3 replies →

  • r0h1n  11 years ago

    Ah. I don't use Facebook, and I haven't installed Twitter's Android app. So I never faced these issues.