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Is a NFC GooglePay spying on us?

Thomaswhite

Lurker
Mar 28, 2018
3
0
Since i installed formerly AndroidPay, i experienced still (again and again )appearing error messages from like 'Google pay has trouble with access permissions trough Google services app' (which i have disabled of course)
Why the hell Google pay even want sensitive access permissions AND why bypassed user decission by using permissions from Google services?!!
All i want is seemless paying by my phone instead my pay card (interesting this still work, even without that permissions)..
 
Play Services is a pretty key element of your device so disabling it is bound to cause issues with Google Apps.
100% this.

If you'll tell us precisely which permissions you've revoked or the ones that Pay is complaining about, we might be able to suggest why they are needed.
 
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100% this.
If you'll tell us precisely which permissions you've revoked or the ones that Pay is complaining about, we might be able to suggest why they are needed.
Thanks for answer, google pay even google maps claim troubles with access with body sensors, phone, microphone and if i've deny contats and other, claims it too,
With maps i can understand contacts, microphone (btw voice commands in are working anyway)
But i don't take why should want G.Pay access to my body sensors, phone, microphone, contacts etc...
And still appearing error notifications..
Again ang again, Pay and Maps (from one of last update) so i'm suspicious google wannt push users to allow permissions for GServices because spying...
 
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Play Services acts as a central provider for some functions, e.g. location (it pools location requests rather than many different apps separately request them). I believe it uses body sensor and microphone permissions for "smart unlock" and "trusted voice" unlocking (neither of which I use myself). I'm not sure either is relevant to Google Pay but as I don't have that installed I can't really investigate that.

There was a bug for a long time where GMail produced error messages if body sensor permission was denied to Play Services, so I can't rule out there being something like that going on here as well.

For the record I've disabled body sensor permissions for Play Services and so far not had any complaints from Maps (in Maps itself I've long had everything apart from location and storage disabled - I don't do voice control, and as far as I can see it only uses Contacts for location sharing, which I also don't do).
 
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If you're concerned that Google is spying on you then there's nothing I can say to assuage that fear. Like has been mentioned, Google Play Services is a core component of the Googly Android experience and it is responsible for integrating a huge array of functions - some merely for convenience, but others as a necessity. Crippling Play Services is going to cripple your device - which is precisely the warning message which is displayed when you revoke permissions.

Google is pretty up-front about what data they do collect from you, and they even let you opt out of most of that data collection if you so choose. They've got a pretty solid track record when it comes to ensuring user privacy, and they've demonstrated time and time again that they take privacy very seriously. If you're still not comfortable sharing any of your data with Google then you'll probably want to re-evaluate whether or not you should be using their services at all.

PS: Here's a fun thought - If Google really wanted to sneakily spy on you they wouldn't let a simple permissions toggle get in the way.
 
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