Privacy

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Everyone knows all the apps on your phone (peabee.substack.com)

submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

25 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Since 2022, with Android 11, Google removed this access from app developers. Under their new package visibility policy, apps should only see other installed apps if it’s essential to their core functionality. Developers must also explicitly declare these apps in the AndroidManifest.xml file - a required configuration file for all Android apps.

For extremely specific use cases such as file managers, browsers or antivirus apps, Google grants an exception by allowing QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES permission, which provides full visibility into installed apps.

I don’t use Android as my primary phone, but I have a spare one and I was really curious to find out which apps from Indian companies had checks to see what other apps I had installed.

So I downloaded a few dozen Indian apps I could think of on top of my head and started reading their manifest files. Surely they will be respectful of my privacy and will only query apps essential to their app's core functionality? 🙃

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago (4 children)

idk what that person imagines you can do. HN is also uber right wing run but has awesome posts.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (3 children)

HN? Hacker news?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

yes, my point is the medium doesn't make the content bad.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I agree. I just wasn't sure what HN was. I didn't realize that it's usually right wing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

The head of the company certainly is alt right, I think it’s more subtle with the common users. I was unaware until recently too