NZ Herald Android App wants excessive permissions

Forums › Android › NZ Herald Android App wants excessive permissions

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#978775 2-Feb-2014 10:05

Yes, notcied the {NEW} access to call logs. Why would NZ Herald need that?

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#978802 2-Feb-2014 10:52

freitasm: Yes, notcied the {NEW} access to call logs. Why would NZ Herald need that?

My gut feeling is that the 3rd party app developers they probably contracted the build out to just used a library/framework without thinking too much about it. Proper research and building of code that "does what it should do" is a fairly time consuming, and therefore probably expensive. I doubt there was much budget for this, and probably the lowest cost bidder was used; and this is the end result.

Assumption only, of course!

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#978841 2-Feb-2014 11:40

Uninstalled here too and feedback placed on the app in Google Play Store.

Any wagers on how long before stuff.co.nz picks up this thread and makes it their lead headline?

My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.

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#978853 2-Feb-2014 12:10

hairy1:

Any wagers on how long before stuff.co.nz picks up this thread and makes it their lead headline?

Writing a story such as this would require a journalist. Most of their tech content is all ex Aussie now so they're not going to be interested in writing a story about it.

sidefx

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#978857 2-Feb-2014 12:19

I see the cover page of the weekend herald is a story about the evil new tracking technologies that supermarkets are using to track their trolleys. The horror. (ironic much?)

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#978861 2-Feb-2014 12:32

sidefx: I see the cover page of the weekend herald is a story about the evil new tracking technologies that supermarkets are using to track their trolleys. The horror. (ironic much?)

Very true haha, I really hate the herald. All you see is someone murdered, Lorde, car crash, fire, more murders, something stolen. NEVER do i ever see anything good unless you read the Northern Advocate or Whangarei Leader, (Usually consists of school children doing cool stuff) They are now on the kingtide bandwagon as well...

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#978864 2-Feb-2014 12:35

sidefx: I see the cover page of the weekend herald is a story about the evil new tracking technologies that supermarkets are using to track their trolleys. The horror. (ironic much?)

And so full of basic errors that the paper should really be ashamed. Because they didn't actually understand what they were writing about they also failed to establish a link to the far bigger privacy issue, which is tracking individual phones.

It's nothing at all to do with satellites and GPS. It uses WiFi triangulation which is exactly the same system being used globally my many retailers to track customers around stores by detecting their phone. Once you have the MAC address you know everything about a customer including how often they visit a store.

I have no idea if New World are doing this or merely tracking the inventory tags on the baskets and trolleys. Their system would certainly be capable of tracking individual phones, and other retailers in NZ are already trialling this technology.

Inventory tracking by WiFi is a very cool technology, there are lots of hospitals now using this to track assets, staff and patients (by tagging them or the bed). You can instantly see the current location of literally every piece of equipment and person in a hospital.

insane

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#978896 2-Feb-2014 13:51

Is there an easy way or a summary to view all your apps permissions? I'm quite keen to reign in some of the info I'm freely giving away unnecessarily.

I did find a nice setting to turn off under the advanced wifi options, it reads 'Let Google's location service and other apps scan for networks, even when Wi-Fi is off'

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#978935 2-Feb-2014 16:01

I'm not updating the app for the same reason. Tried to find someway of turning off notifications without much luck.

If they try to make me pay I'll just not visit at all.

I already pay for uk guardian and New York Times which are -real- newspaper . 2 pounds and 4 dollars per month

Amuses me how much content in herald is copies from guardian, independent or NY times already.

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#978947 2-Feb-2014 16:29

Guardian is my first go-to for news, especially global stuff. But being based in AU means I actually get local news via their AU presence. The only real options for local NZ news are Stuff or the Herald - and I gave up on Stuff a while ago as their stories are also so full of errors that it was pathetic. As time went on, it became harder (or impossible) to find the real news on the Stuff site behind all the celebrity gossip and other junk.

I still think the NZH has better content, and will continue to use the mobile site for now.

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eXDee

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#978949 2-Feb-2014 16:33

Would be interesting if a reporter from one of the other trashy media outlets (eg stuff) picked up this as a story.

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#978956 2-Feb-2014 17:03

insane: Is there an easy way or a summary to view all your apps permissions? I'm quite keen to reign in some of the info I'm freely giving away unnecessarily.

I did find a nice setting to turn off under the advanced wifi options, it reads 'Let Google's location service and other apps scan for networks, even when Wi-Fi is off'

Under settings applications

Then turn them of with app ops app if u have 4.3 4.4 4.4.1

defragger

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#978976 2-Feb-2014 17:45

Thanks for this thread. I didn't even look at the new permission settings when installing it. Will be more careful in the future.

Uninstalled.

04fuxake

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#978978 2-Feb-2014 17:47

I just use the mobile websites for Stuff and NZ Herald. I've never seen what the apps give me over them.

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#978979 2-Feb-2014 17:49

ajobbins: Last night I saw that I had a pending app update for the NZ Herald app on my android.

Going into the update, NZ Herald seems to be asking for some pretty excessive access to my personal data, without any explanation about why. The update 'whats new' simply says "Bug fixes and app enhancements", with no suggestions about what 'enhancements' actually need that data for.

Ohh, you should send a news tip to the herald about how they are taking peoples contacts.

Wonder if they will publish self-scandals?

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