Good gravy this would be an abysmal report on Android. In my experience many of the free utility apps and games I downloaded required location tracking for no good reason. I’m on iOS for that (and other) reasons.
LineageOS + Xposed which gives you MUCH better control than iOS. In particular there are plugins that allow you to fake certain info to apps, including returning fake IMEI and fake sensor data.
And also trips (unless you try really hard) the stupid "Safety Check" which I can see as beneficial in some cases (i.e. banking apps) but .. is frustrating in other cases (like Pokémon Go, other games/apps).
There are plugins for Xposed that let you fake these data on a per-app basis, so if you want an app to have access to real data you can allow that as well.
Android also has a terrible issue with not having good options on this front. You have to either not download the video game that needs open access to your contacts or micromanage some sketchy looking app that will help you “block” these sorts of things.
You can selectively deny permissible requests after the app is installed, but what irritates me is that granting access to my location allows the app to continually track me while it's running in the background (even if you never open the app). I've heard this will change in a future version of Android.
I discovered this when I was scrolling through the DTEK app on my BlackBerry, which shows every time an app requests sensitive data access, and saw that a bunch of apps that I hadn't opened in a while (like GasBuddy) were accessing my location every 5 minutes.
I don't think background location works anymore. My GPS logger I use for cycling gets killed after about 20 minutes if it isn't the currently open app when I turn off the screen.
This is not Android thing (yet). Just some vendors, start killing apps in the background. However this is developers nightmare, as they can't deliver consistent experience across all devices. IMO background tracking (with all restrictions, killing...) should be handled directly by AndroidOS, not by vendors. Checkout https://dontkillmyapp.com
I know. I have been a fan of Android for years, but with the privacy issues related to Google I can't help but to think that my next device will be an iPhone. My Galaxy S8+ still works perfectly fine though, so I'm not sure I'm ready to buy something I don't need.
The ones i am aware are all useless (battery saver, space cleaner etc), and at some point one or two was requesting screenshot access (forgot the name) under the false pretense of "accesibility".
I get a notification on my Galaxy S9 each time an app tries to access my location, microphone, etc. It's called permissions monitor and it appears to either be part of Android itself or a feature Samsung added to my device.
> iMessage lock-in
> SMS from desktop solution
> Animojis is probably the biggest one
Every so often I am reminded people still use SMS, and by extension, iMessage. I think a combination of being in South East Asia for a long time, and also moving around so much, and both me (and almost everyone I know) uses various messaging apps not tied to a phone number (WhatsApp, Messenger, LINE). I have a British VOIP number where SMS goes through to my email.
I wonder how much longer phone numbers, and, by association, SMS have to live.
