Your apps are spying on you.

big surprise.

Remember TextPlus4 that you installed? yep, now ad agencies have your phone's unique ID, location, and sometimes even your gender and age... who knows what else? your contact list?

This article comes as no surprise to me.

I have beef with Apple and Google wiping their hands of the responsibility by having applications require to disclose what permissions they're asking for, because honestly, if you want to use an application, the stuff it doesn't tell you it's doing, doesn't really matter, right?

wrong.

My beef with this is that they're putting the focus on the consumers giving permissions that the software is requesting. A lot of users don't even know what these permissions are, or what they include. "Location" ... okay, so if I turn on GPS, and open that app, are they going to know the address of the house I'm sitting in? Or if I've recently "closed" the application (and it's still running a service in the background), and get in my car and activate my GPS for navigation, are they going to know where I am then? and where I'm going?

The biggest complaint I have with the permissions isn't just that noone seems to understand them, it's that there's no options. You either grant all permissions, or don't. by declining, you're also opt-ing out of using the application.

How about this: The application requests permissions and you choose what permissions it should have access to. For example. If I go to install the game Slice It (which I believe is available on both iPhone and Android), and it requests (these are the actual permissions requested on Android) Your Location (both network and GPS), Network Communication (Full Inet access, Network state, Wifi state), Storage (SD Card access), Phone calls (read phone state and identity), System tools (retrieve running apps, change wifi state).

Why does it need all that?

Do I want Slice It to know where I am? not really. Do I get a choice? not if I want to use the application. Why does it need to know my identity and phone state? does the application want to know if I'm on a call while playing the game? Doubtful.

Do you think that if I asked the developer why they wanted all these permissions, that they would give me a straight answer? Probably not. Additionally, there's no way to revoke permissions other than to remove the application. This is my biggest gripe... Do you really believe that an application, such as Slice It would NOT WORK if there was no location data and no network access? I'm guessing it would, I can put my phone into airplane mode (all radios off) and start up the game, and it would likely run fine.

I get some of the permissions, they make sense, like SD card access to save games and stuff, and Network access to download levels without the need to update the whole application in the market, etc... but I should have the capability of granting or revoking those as I see fit.

The permissions shouldn't be "these are the permissions it wants, is that ok?" it should be that the permissions requested by the application are granted individually, rather than as a group.

But hell, what the hell do I know? I'm just a paranoid consumer right?

TELUS APP for Android

Just a quick note.

I try to orient my blog for the world but this one is canada-specific, though everyone should enjoy the amounts of fail in this one.

I'm a Telus Mobility subscriber, and they call a lot of their self-service options My Telus or some such non-sense. With that said, they released their second Android app onto the market in the past week... the first was a music application (to buy music wirelessly).

This second app is for 'direct access to mytelus' The app, seems to be a launcher for an application or website that does not yet exist. so currently this app does nothing but load a page that says "coming soon"

... why telus? WHY? why not make an announcement online and wait to release the application in whole, or when the service is ready?

This whole thing is failing so hard that it's hard for me to understand much else.

Trying to Untangle the Tubes

Hello Internet!

or as some of us like to call it, the tubes.

This is, of course, my very first posting here and I would like to start with a statement of intent. This, is my very own tech-blog. This will be where I talk about technical matters of grave importance to me, and give my opinions on a vast array of topics, from network security, system security, server setup, network topology, microtechnology, robotics, cell phones, operating systems, applications, and hardware... there's probably more, but you get the idea.

Currently, I'm working on embedding all of my current endeavours into a single unified webspace, and, if you're reading this significantly after I've posted it, it may already exist; you may have even been referred here from it. In either case, I welcome you to my thoughts.

Personally, I am interested in a wide array of technologies, including microsystems and robotic, though my experience in that field is limited. I have also taken some time to get to know various types of cellphones, and their associated embedded applications, and have recently begun branching out into smartphone technologies. I've been slowly reading up on the CCNA tests, and I've been making my way though self-study books. I've also been working through A+ certification books, mostly for fun, since I don't seem to be learning anything from them. With over 10 years in computers, this field is very natural to me, and never ceases to engage my mind with interest, intrigue, and curiosity.

Currently, I run several systems, including a few laptops for personal use, I sacrificed my desktop to use as a server, and maintain several servers, some for use by 3rd party organizations, some belonging to party organizations. I also have a number of electronics, routers, switches, as well as the usual banter for someone in the field (storage, flash drives, external drives, monitors, keyboards... even a PDA (Dell Axim x51v)).

All this aside, I hope you understand and learn something new.