Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by mysticmarvel 3433 days ago
How often do you upgrade or purchase a new Apple device? Once per year? I'll take one instance of setting up permissions for stock apps (Many of which I don't use) over granting them unfettered access to my data and device services any day of the year. For instance, under no circumstances do I want Location Services enabled for: "App Store, Camera, Facebook, Messages, Siri, Twitter, HomeKit, Location based Alerts or Ads or Suggestions, WiFi Networking, Frequent Locations, Diagnostics and Usage, or Popular Near Me. I'd be happier if I could disable location access by modem too (GPS, Bluetooth, and WiFi) but it isn't that granular.
3 comments

Offer a device to a novice and watch him/her panic over the incredibly huge amount of popups. (I saw my mom)

How frequent do I buy a new device shouldn't be a reason for onboarding to be such a hassle.

Of course location is a good exemple of permissions you don't want to give to every app, but I gave example of apps asking for obvious permissions.

Camera app (Still love this example, sorry) ask access for camera, and oh storage... really? Both of them are really obvious. I don't know anyone using camera just to see the preview, but maybe.

Giving the camera app access to location data is useful though. If you do that, the photo app can automatically group your photos by location/city, which is very useful if you take a lot of photos and travel a lot.
Also Apple has a backup system that happens every night automatically. So even if you buy every iPhone that comes out you don't have to set up permissions again.

(I may be wrong, someone correct me if I am).