Google discusses privacy and permissions within Android apps

Privacy and security are big issues for consumers lately, especially when it comes to technology. It’s such an important topic that during Apple’s keynote last week, they used privacy as a selling point for their products. Staying in control of your data and information is invaluable to customers now, and companies are striving to make sure their users stay in control of those things.

With Apple making such a huge push in the direction of privacy, that puts eyes on Google to see what they’re planning on doing to help out on the security front. A Google executive recently sat down to discuss some of what goes into managing user info, especially when it comes to apps on a smartphone, and why it took the company so long to get things to where they are now.

With Android M, Google has implemented a useful new feature that lets users pick and choose which permissions apps get upon installation. If you don’t think that new game should have access to your microphone and photo gallery (and it probably shouldn’t) you don’t have to allow it those specific permissions. Currently, you have the option to install the app with all of its permissions, or just don’t install the app. Not an ideal solution.

If we back up a bit to the Jelly Bean days of Android, you might remember when an “app ops” setting was uncovered that set the foundation for this new privacy feature. App ops let users pick and choose and revoke permissions for apps, and although the feature was a little half-baked at the time, it was never designed for public use at the time. Google hadn’t planned far enough ahead to figure out what would happen when you revoked a camera app’s permission to access your camera, for instance. Android’s APIs weren’t set up to handle those kinds of exceptions, which would likely cause lots of crashes and errors within apps.

Those APIs are changing in Android M, so users can selectively allow permissions to different apps, and the apps won’t break when they’re missing a permission they were expecting. The caveat here is that developers aren’t required to use these new tools, but they are if they want to use the newer developer tools that Android M brings. Google is hoping that’s enough of a selling point to bring most developers across the line.

These new APIs are part of the reason why it’s taken Google so long to implement the feature. Finding a balance that keeps developers and users happy has obviously taken some time, but it looks like the solution is finally ready for primetime later this year.

source: The Guardian

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