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by eh78ssxv2f
2644 days ago
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> "Note that all of these things that they are removing for “security”, could simply be gated around a permission prompt you’d have to accept, as with the contact list, or location." I think letting the user decide on permissions works in practice only if (i) There is a good chance that an average user would understand the tradeoffs of giving different permissions to different apps (ii) A large majority of users are expected to give that permission to the app under reasonable circumstances. If an average user does not understand the tradeoffs of giving permissions to an app, then the operating system may as well do it on behalf of the user. I think this is a common problem since an average user probably clicks arbitrarily on the permissions dialog. Similarly, if a permission is perceived to be not useful enough by most of the users, then there is no point in even having that in the ecosystem. |
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"User choice is what all of this boils down to, really. Android used to give me the choice of being slightly insecure in exchange for having more powerful and innovative features in the apps I install..."
You're dead on about the average user. Watch someone install and app, and less than a second is spent looking at the permissions.
Google's solution makes sense for their platform, not for power users. Leaving security up to users will result in insecure devices, increasing support costs as well as denigrating the brand.
If people are going to do things like financial transactions shudder on their phone, then the platform has to be rock-solid secure. That leaves those who might know and do better with their devices with less options.
It's the price of maturity.