One of the most unhelpful answers on quora

[mr moose]

I was looking for an explanation to an android problem I was having with permissions and came across this response to a different issue:

 

Quote

Just as an info if you are using Google ecosystem, you have to trust them. You have to put your trust on these large companies anyway. Keep a tab on permission for small vendors and apps. For google just dnt be paranoid.

 

Now I am not one to go on a complete rant about this sort of thing, but this just seems too naive and not really helpful for those of us who don't understand the need for google to create go between services in such a way that you can't turn permissions off.  For us it isn't really paranoia but a genuine concern that requires a good answer.

 

Fortunately someone later down provided this:

 

Quote

 

Short of an official answer from Google, the answer so far is “I don’t know and probably neither do most people”.

As far as I am concerned there is no need. I have disabled the assistant (yet it still responds to “Hey Google” on the home screen). The text-to-speech feature works, I can still dictate an SMS message, and I can talk to the assistant which is supposedly disabled.

I figure that Google itself gets away with sloppy programming and greedy permissions (and who knows what else).

So regarding those who seem to be borderline doing some pro-bono PR work for Google, their answers are probably wishful thinking.

 

 

 

Full thread here:

https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Google-play-service-need-access-to-microphone-and-body-sensor-permissions

 

 

Anyway, I only post this as I thought others might have something more interesting/relevant to say.

 

 

P.S My problem is nuisance notifications from google play services telling me to turn on permission for mic, location, contacts, SMS  etc.  Every app I have works perfectly fine without these permissions being granted so I just want to disable the nuisance notifications.

 

 

 

 

 

[NineEyeRon]

They are not far off.

 

The big few, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google are held to account by the public as they are used by billions.

 

A company used by a few thousand people however, take more care with!

[RejZoR]

Well, that basically sums up why I ditched Android entirely. Not that Apple and iOS are that better since some things are still questionable, but their business model is entirely different and Apple at least tries to give a fuck about privacy.

 

Google, given how they make billions has basically no interest in curbing a market (data hoarding and selling it to advertisers) in which they are the biggest player. Unless that will directly result in their own benefit (like banning Facebook analytics in apps and demanding devs to only use Google's for Android apps).

 

The worst offended I've ever came across was VeryFit app for a smart bracelet/fitness bracelet (granted it's some cheap one from eBay). On Android it outright demands that you have GPS enabled. Not just location services, GPS! If you don't it'll refuse to work entirely. Here's a kicker. App literally doesn't have ANY location based features like tracking your runs on a map. And yet it demands this. Fast forward when I bought iPhone. Exact same app on iOS, you can block its access to location services entirely. Guess what, works just fine anyway. Clearly, someone is keeping higher standards for apps on their platform than others. Yeah, Google, I'm looking at you and your bullshit that you allow app makers to push on users.

[mr moose]

Just now, NineEyeRon said:

They are not far off.

 

The big few, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google are held to account by the public as they are used by billions.

 

A company used by a few thousand people however, take more care with!

 

So why does google play services keep hounding me to enable access to body sensors, calendar, camera, contacts, microphone, storage, phone, and SMS when the messages app runs just fine without them?   Also I have turned all notifications from google play services off but they still come through.

 

My point being, I don't want people telling me to "just trust them", I want an explanation of why they need that info first.

[Master Disaster]

16 minutes ago, NineEyeRon said:

They are not far off.

 

The big few, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google are held to account by the public as they are used by billions.

 

A company used by a few thousand people however, take more care with!

Utter nonsense, larger corporations are much more likely to screw up and do something you don't want them to. Whether it be a genuine mistake or a deliberate change to make more money.

 

The 4 corporations you named are easily the basis for over 50% of the "large corporation screws up and does something bad" type topics in TNaR and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Heck Facebook alone makes up the large majority of those types of threads.

 

A smaller company will be more careful because they want more business and they have less customers which means less chance of screwing up plus if they do it affects less people overall.

 

Also being held accountable for making a mistake in no way impacts the chances of making said mistake in the first place.

[Arika]

well thats about on par for quora

[TechyBen]

54 minutes ago, mr moose said:

I was looking for an explanation to an android problem I was having with permissions and came across this response to a different issue:

 

 

Now I am not one to go on a complete rant about this sort of thing, but this just seems too naive and not really helpful for those of us who don't understand the need for google to create go between services in such a way that you can't turn permissions off.  For us it isn't really paranoia but a genuine concern that requires a good answer.

 

Fortunately someone later down provided this:

 

 

 

Full thread here:

https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Google-play-service-need-access-to-microphone-and-body-sensor-permissions

 

 

Anyway, I only post this as I thought others might have something more interesting/relevant to say.

 

 

P.S My problem is nuisance notifications from google play services telling me to turn on permission for mic, location, contacts, SMS  etc.  Every app I have works perfectly fine without these permissions being granted so I just want to disable the nuisance notifications.

 

 

 

 

 

You have to trust your carrier too. It's a fact of life. SIM activated code exists, ability to install apps (sub root etc, as it can effectively run on the sim card) exist. We don't have *trusted* computing, and have not had it for a while.

 

But I agree, nuisance notifications/permissions are annoying, especially from Google or the manufacture.

 

[Edit]

I would assume Google Play services is checking what features you have on your phone. A better way would be a seperate gate keeper app/service that tells other apps if/when/how they can use your phone features/sensors... however, Google love to fold it all into 1 thing, are are they know for doing things the "best" way?

[Guest]

Because its a voting-answer system rather than the questioner picks, its definitely not great. It's more of a social media now. 

 

I used to use it a lot for answering iPhone and MacOS questions (used to be expert in numerous topics don't mean 2 brag, have 813k views thank you). Hardly any of the right questions get to the top, and especially for questions that don't get many views, answers can be poor - and most importantly there are no moderators, curating is done purely by the community. I went pretty much inactive since 2016 simply because there's just no point in answering. 

[mr moose]

22 minutes ago, TechyBen said:

 

[Edit]

I would assume Google Play services is checking what features you have on your phone. A better way would be a seperate gate keeper app/service that tells other apps if/when/how they can use your phone features/sensors... however, Google love to fold it all into 1 thing, are are they know for doing things the "best" way?

The problem is all my apps work without play services having any permissions, so the only thing giving it permissions does (on the surface) is stop the nuisance notifications.

[TechyBen]

23 minutes ago, mr moose said:

The problem is all my apps work without play services having any permissions, so the only thing giving it permissions does (on the surface) is stop the nuisance notifications.

Yeah. It's just one of those "not a bug" problems with the development. They have no incentive, need or desire to change it's function. It works for Google, and meets their needs, so they don't care.

 

I've nothing against Apples hardware/software reliability and useability. I just prefer/need at times SD cards, USB connectivity, replacement parts, file access etc. The things iOS does not have, or Macbooks try to stop (repairability the main bit ).

 

I see the pros and cons to both Google and Apple ecosystems. I'd not recommend my phone to others, I'd ask what they need/want, and realise sometimes an iPhone would be best for them (but for that group, 99% of the time, they either already have one, or cannot afford one  ).

[RejZoR]

@mr moose

Install Blokada. Lists will block tons of crap that shouldn't be connecting as well as give you ability to limit Google itself. You'll still need to allow some tho, otherwise Google apps will be bitching about it. In the end you'll just get rid of Android coz it's literally spyware in shape of an OS. With "open source" projects, you also just have to trust someone unless you inspect the code yourself and then compile it. Which basically no one does.

[lawliot]

I use this filter in uBlock Origin to filter quora from search-

 

google.com###search .g:has(cite:has-text(/https?:\/\/.*\.quora\.com/))