New SwiftKey Version - Why These Crazy Permissions?

[MasterCylinder]

I was looking into the new version of SwiftKey for $1.99 and was perplexed by the permissions! I'm new to Smartphones, so I don't understand this :

"Read your text messages - ... regardless of content or confidentiality."
"Read phone status and identity - ... allows the app to determine the phone number and device IDs, ..., and the remote number connected..."

I was looking at the new Samsung All Share Play conversion to Samsung Link app and they wanted the same permissions. I just went through 10 apps on my phone and noticed that most of them required these same permissions, but their function usually had nothing to do with these features.

Can someone edumacate me?

 

[gtbarry]

As far as text messages are concerned, Swiftkey will only read text messages if you tell it to in the settings (in order to learn your style of writing better in order to give you better predictions).

You won't like the fact that when you select Swiftkey in Language and Input it will pop up a standard Android warning that says "the app can key log information including credit cards and passwords". (Once again, that is a standard Android warning for any keyboard selected).

Overall, look at it like you do google. google has access to lots of your personal information. Probably more than you are willing to believe. But do you think google will risk losing BILLIONS in marketcap and BILLIONS in lawsuits by poking around into your information and snooping and stealing your confidential information? If so, stop using the Internet.

Same goes for Swiftkey. Do you really think they will risk everything to see who you text and what you text?

I'm not saying trust everyone. And certainly don't trust apps like this that you find any place other than the Play Store or Amazon.

 

[gingersnapgirl]

Swiftkey, and other custom keyboard apps, use this information to learn your typing habits to improve their suggestions.

 

[MasterCylinder]

But do you think google will risk losing BILLIONS in marketcap and BILLIONS in lawsuits by poking around into your information and snooping and stealing your confidential information?

Hasn't this already happened? Google was convicted in Germany of illegal data mining whilst roving taking pictures for Street View, though only fined a pittance.

If so, stop using the Internet.

Oh - gently. Tole you I was a noob - (to using phones, not the internet)

Okay ...., just sayin' the fine print don't look right. Airdroid takes a boat load of invasive permissions; Fandango checks my phone calls, as do many Google apps (Google Play Music?) NFL Mobile and the New York Times, Pandora ... Tetris !?

When you look at the expanded permissions on Google Play, you see an exhaustive technical explanation that may not really indicate the actually use. Some of these apps might just need to interrupt itself if a call comes in, for example.

I guess I just have to close my eyes and trust - (didn't a recent Presidential Administration say that? Just "trust us"? Aw heck, let's try it again anyway. Privacy is sooo yesterday! )

 

[SkyJackpot]

I guess I just have to close my eyes and trust - (didn't a recent Presidential Administration say that? Just "trust us"? Aw heck, let's try it again anyway. Privacy is sooo yesterday! )

For balance you can read a website on How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking

How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

I think the distinction has to be made between a company bending the rules to collect extra data, as opposed to somebody or group of people who are making efforts to collect and analyse your own specific personal data with mischievous or harmful intent, although I do enjoy their attempts at getting this information in movies such as James Bond or Mission Impossible for example.

" Had I used two-factor authentication for my Google account, it’s possible that none of this would have happened "

" Offline, he likes to point out, we have ways to establish trust, as in this casino, where we expect the bartender to serve us a soda, not a poisoned chalice. We establish trust based on how we speak, whether we appear drunk or deranged, whether we meet at a casino or a toy store — and also, irrationally, on attributes like race and age.

Online, this becomes even more complicated, Mr. Schneier argues. We no longer think twice about letting our friends see our vacation pictures on Flickr, now owned by Yahoo. So habituated have we become to revealing intimate details, Mr. Schneier writes, that we forget that Facebook, the company, can read our missives at any time, potentially forever "

A program called " Privacy Blocker " is available in the Google Play store which alerts you to any applications which shouldn't be accessing areas where it shouldn't be.

 

[divinebovine]

This inevitably turned into a meaningful (if controversial) discussion of privacy worries at a wide level, but I'm still interested in OP's somewhat more technical questions. How would a keyboard program use "Read phone status and identity - ... allows the app to determine the phone number and device IDs, ..., and the remote number connected..."? And then there's "Fandango checks my phone calls, as do many Google apps (Google Play Music?) NFL Mobile and the New York Times, Pandora ... Tetris !?" Any thoughts on the specific uses of these individual permissions by these individual apps?

 

[SkyJackpot]

This inevitably turned into a meaningful (if controversial) discussion of privacy worries at a wide level, but I'm still interested in OP's somewhat more technical questions. How would a keyboard program use "Read phone status and identity - ... allows the app to determine the phone number and device IDs, ..., and the remote number connected..."? And then there's "Fandango checks my phone calls, as do many Google apps (Google Play Music?) NFL Mobile and the New York Times, Pandora ... Tetris !?" Any thoughts on the specific uses of these individual permissions by these individual apps?

At the top of the Android Applications section of this Forum, and which this thread is in, is a sticky thread describing application permissions and what they might be used for

http://androidforums.com/android-applications/36936-android-permissions-explained-security-tips-avoiding-malware.html