We want your soul

jct

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Much discussion about this today. Since the home base is in Russia, that concerns many people. Allegedly there are some settings to decrease what they can do. It was also noted that this app has been around for a good while (i.e., years).

CBODY67
 
Most consumers don't pay any attention to the permissions apps want( not neccessary require) before they download the app. The "free" games come at a cost, your privacy. The developers make their money through advertisements and selling your info that they collect via the app. I only have a handful of apps on my phone ( IHeart radio, a couple weather/radar apps, telemetry app, etc,) I manually turn off every permission. IHeart radio doesn't need access to my location. Same with Facebook, I've denied access to everything I don't think is any of their business. Camera, SD card, internal storage, location, camera, microphone, contacts. Unless you manually deny access the owners of the app are collecting the data on everywhere you go, everything you say, every picture you take, every website you visit, every person you contact.
 
Most consumers don't pay any attention to the permissions apps want( not neccessary require) before they download the app. The "free" games come at a cost, your privacy. The developers make their money through advertisements and selling your info that they collect via the app. I only have a handful of apps on my phone ( IHeart radio, a couple weather/radar apps, telemetry app, etc,) I manually turn off every permission. IHeart radio doesn't need access to my location. Same with Facebook, I've denied access to everything I don't think is any of their business. Camera, SD card, internal storage, location, camera, microphone, contacts. Unless you manually deny access the owners of the app are collecting the data on everywhere you go, everything you say, every picture you take, every website you visit, every person you contact.
As someone who does Android development, and pioneered an infotainment system to replace a system "that can't be replaced," I can tell you this is a gross overstatement. Here's what SO many people are missing and don't understand...

Camera Access: This is only needed if you want to launch the camera from within the app.
SD Card and Internal Storage: You can't save the picture you just took without permission, and you can't upload to FB (or whatever other app) if it can't access the files.
Location: They aren't tracking your every move. Google does track a lot of it, but if you want to use GPS, or the "Check In" feature at all, it has to locate you.
Microphone: If you use a voice search, make a Messenger call, or send voice clips/memos- gotta use the microphone. They aren't eavesdropping.
Contacts: This is only needed to add contacts to your friend list, or for link sharing.

So, while the outward-facing paranoia will make it look like they're trying to become their own NSA, don't spread misinformation. I've torn into every Android app I've ever used, and have come across very few that have any malicious collection practices.

PS- the majority of Weather apps are datamining too. Unless you gain root access to your phone, and install a custom ROM, it's all out of your control anyway.
 
Ehh, I think personal informations are valuable when they are hard to obtain. Now all the sites and applications can access our persona informations. Perhaps this is making the info less valuable and something not to care about.
 
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