[Someone1234]

Android has a lot of information leaks. I hate to keep beating this dead horse, but as of last year Google gives every app you install access to your cellphone number without them needing to ask for an extra permission (READ_PHONE_STATE is now a freebie as far as the app store is concerned, it isn't listed, in fact it will say "no special permissions" if READ_PHONE_STATE alone is in the manifest).

I honestly think Android's permission system is a joke, and a sceptical Google will fix the majority of the information leaks with this up-coming update.

PS - It is "interesting" that getting your google account address requires a special permission on Android, but getting your phone number does not. Wonder why that is? IMEI too.

[haywardsmyfault]

Actually as of the Android M preview you can get the user email address without any permission guarding.

This is because GET_ACCOUNTS is under PROTECTION_NORMAL, and so it is automatically granted at install time.

[Someone1234]

Ouch, that's certainly a step on the wrong direction. I guess they get points for consistency, but they're being consistently bad.

[mst]

If they've found that users almost always say yes to it, that might be the correct choice for being consistently usable even if you (and I) dislike that choice.

[JadeNB]

Enabled-by-default is a defensible choice (even if we don't like it), but it sounds like this is un-disableable, which I think is not defensible.

[on_and_off]

I am not sure how it should be handled. Allowing an app to automatically propose the user's email in a login form is pretty good in terms of UX ... but it means that the app can access to that data.

[JadeNB]

It seems pretty clear how this should be handled, no? If the app wants to do it, then, as with anything else that might make the user experience better at a privacy cost, let it ask for permission to do it!

[on_and_off]

Having to ask for the permission to display the email just for the autocomplete makes sense from a privacy perspective, but defeats its UX purpose. A better solution would probably be to continue to move away from email + password logins and ask the user to login once in an OCD platform and then only propose this in order to signup/login to an app.

[userbinator]

I believe these are certainly the result of deliberate decisions.

Remember when Google introduced fine-grained permission control, received much praise for it, then removed it almost immediately afterwards? To me, that showed they clearly valued the interests of themselves and their monetising "appvertiser" developers over the freedom of the users.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/awesome-privacy-featur...

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/12/google-removes-vital-p...