69 pointsby mgh24 hours ago3 comments

delichon2 hours ago
Google appears to be overlooking their explicit ban on this.
```
  If your app handles personal and sensitive user data, then you must ... Not sell personal and sensitive user data. 
```
The rule also applies to third-party code.
```
  If you include third party code (for example, an SDK) in your app, you must ensure that the third party code used in your app, and that third party's practices with respect to user data from your app, are compliant with Google Play Developer Program policies... For example, you must ensure that your SDK providers do not sell personal and sensitive user data from your app.
```
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ...
Isn't this abuse what we are supposed to be paying their 15% Play Store tax to stop?
- benoauan hour ago
  World would be a much better place if Google and Apple enforced their chosen policies for apps, and Meta and Google enforced their chosen policies for ads, but then these companies would be very slightly poorer.
- LoganDark32 minutes ago
  This just means you can't get money for the personal and sensitive user data. It's wild that companies think that's the problem.
  Webloc is getting this data for free. And then reselling it, but it's outside the scope of Google then.
everdrive2 hours ago
There's no good reason to use your phone for any more than the bare minimum. Remove as many apps as possible. Treat it like a landline by just keeping in on a desk or something when you're at home.
- infinite_spina minute ago
  That's not the way I want to live. I want to enjoy technology and enjoy privacy, and since those aren't mutually exclusive, it's reasonable to expect both.
jareklupinski3 hours ago
> The tool collects vast quantities of location data from smartphones via commonly used weather, gaming, email and religious apps.
is there a list
- fancyfredbotan hour ago
  In Android apps need to request location permission. You can reject it and/or uninstall those which request it.
  Most apps will only be able to request location while running in the foreground.
  Weather apps are unusual for having a reason to request background location access and so you should treat them with particular suspicion.
  - Terr_22 minutes ago
    I regret that we've moved away from a world where you could easily tell your device throw a privacy-preserving bone to pesky apps. ("Sure, you've got location access, but it'll only show my house, you don't get to see where else I go.")
    Instead our ownership and agency has been sacrificed on the altar of "but BigCo doesn't like it because users can lie."
- nik2820002 hours ago
  Don't use apps. Use your browser and an ad blocker.
  - TFNAan hour ago
    A significant amount of the internet for normies today is app-first, where there may be no web version, or the web version lacks much of the core functionality of the service. Instagram led the way with this before Covid already, but the practice then spread widely.
    The savvy crowd on HN hopefully already knows how to protect ourselves, but we can't really expect the mass public to do so. Especially when some younger people today are losing awareness of the very concept of the browser as they use dedicated apps for all their internet use.
    nik28200036 minutes ago
    Sucks to suck.
    If a service is sub-par in the browser I don't use it. Be ThE cHaNgE yOu WaNt To SeE. I hate that sentence but it kinda applies here.
    ranger_danger29 minutes ago
    I have tried for years but it just doesn't make a difference if enough people in the world don't care loudly enough.
    Banks are relying on Play Integrity protection as well as SMS-based 2FA, neither of which are both safe and private.