Tuesday, September 24, 2013

A note on privacy

It's not just the NSA that spies on you.

It's a little different when a company does it than when the Fed.Gov does, but remember most of these companies work with the NSA.

8 comments:

  1. Which permissions should we most fear? An epub reader wanted access to Development Tools or some such. Seems rather a lot.

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  2. I usually deny access to my contact list. I don't want to make it any easier to build a spam mailing list.

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  3. When hyperbole is no longer differentiated from reality it is time to wake up.

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  4. Weetabix, it's really hard to say. But I'd be nervous giving any app access to dev tools. There's a huge opportunity for mischief there.

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  5. @Dave H, is that an iOS thing? I haven't found a way to selectively deny permissions per app on my Nexus 4. It's all or nothing on Android AFAIK.

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  6. No, I just decline to install anything that asks for access to my contact list. I haven't come across any app yet that I wanted so badly that I'm willing to rat out my family & friends to have it.

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  7. @aczarnowski, there are Android apps, I don't know the name, that can block permissions from apps. Not all apps will work with their permissions disabled, but it's something to look for. (I'd like to see the ability to send fake data to those apps.)

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  8. My rule of thumb is "does this permission make sense for what the app is supposed to do?" A solitaire game doesn't need access to my contact list, for example. Neither should a weather app.

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