Android's open enough for me, but what I find unhappy is that Google seems intent on tricking people into revealing more and more information. It often reminds me to turn on history tracking, despite having said no many times.
Every time I use the Play store, it tries to get me to enter a phone number. The way it does this is by popping up a dialog, with no buttons except continue. It makes it look like you MUST do this (there's no indication you can back out), even though it's optional. That's deceptive.
And of course, the idiotic permissions system. Want to check to see if a user's on the phone? Gotta also get access to who they call and their IMEI and other permanent identifiers.
Basically, all the time I'm on my Android device, I feel like I've gotta be extra cautious, that Google's out to screw me over. Unfortunately, MS is just flubbing their system by pumping it full of crap. (They were paying devs in 3rd world countries $2000 to push out junk apps. They refuse to take down garbage/scams. They even published fake Windows Updates on the store, and other stuff that falsely claims to be by MS.) MS could fix it all immediately by offering Android app compatibility. I'd switch in a minute.
I use Firefox as my browser, mainly because of this. I wish I could switch to another smartphone platform.
Try F-Droid, a repository of FOSS apps with a focus on user confidentiality. They offer some security assurance by building and signing the apps from the orginal source, and offer nice functionality such as automatic updates (which you can disable, of course). Their store and related app is a fork of Aptoide. I often can find good solutions on F-Droid, but the repository is small.
Small correction: F-Droid doesn't yet support automatic updates [0], but rather, automatic notifications that updates are available to be manually installed. Merge requests always welcome though :)
> And of course, the idiotic permissions system. Want to check to see if a user's on the phone? Gotta also get access to who they call and their IMEI and other permanent identifiers.
This bothers me the most about Android. What is the point of individual Permissions if it's all or nothing!!
The only reasonable explanation for me after years of slipping down the slope, and trying to rationalize and defend Google's actions such as :
0. Reading through all our email (We were so naive back then)
1. Google saying it would never link data from its other websites (Youtube, bloggr) with our Gmail id, and then going ahead and doing just that
2. Google announcing Android as Free, Open-source Operating System, then with each update removing functionality to Google Play Services,
3. Google sabotaging the permissions system, by clubbing innocuous, essential permissions with down-right dangerous/malicious ones
4. Creating amazing tech that could provide a quantum leap in the quality of life (for the first world at least) but will further enable Google's all-seeing eye to impinge over our daily life (Self-driving cars, Google Glass)
5. Acquiring home automation companies, robotics company with large defense contracts,
... is that Google is well on its way to becoming truly Evil.
People say that the NSA's unsaid motto is 'to collect it all'. I say that motto sum's up perfectly Google's vision.
Maybe the NSA should just outsource their IT operations to Google... Google has a better security/breach track record, and seems to do better in terms of finding what people are looking for.. I'm sure giving them more data to work with could only help. :-D
I'd like to see a critical mass of AOSP vendors emerge that would convince Android devs to look beyond the Play store. MS shipping their own flavor of Android, along with Amazon and then BB and Jolla offering Android app compatibility could begin to turn that tide. Especially with MS being able to offer some "foundational" type apps (Bing maps, email client, MS Office, Cortana) that could address some of the holes in not utilizing Google Play services.
I don't see it happening though, MS would have to declare that their unified Windows 10 OS is a failure before it even launches.
It's not just the lack of apps (but any Windows Phone user will tell you that it's a huge drag) but that the ROI of offering an Android app outside of Google Play isn't there.
If it weren't just Amazon's AOSP, but also (for instance) if Microsoft and Firefox also offered their own, and combined they took a respectable share of the Android install base AND their respective app stores could all be targeted by Android devs with a single deployment then we would have something.
I have a Fire Phone with the Amazon maps app. I find it extremely disappointing after coming from Google Maps. No bike routes and quite clumsy UI. And, unfortunately, even though I've sideloaded the Play Store and installed Google Maps, the text is mangled beyond legibility, so I get lost a lot more often now.
Funny, after early today having to enter "Hospital" then "Emergency Room" into maps while in down town Phoenix, I found the whole experience pretty disappointing... Google should really work on that kind of entry.
That Microsoft were paying anybody cash to stuff their app store was sufficient to make your point. There's no need to bring prejudices against "3rd world countries" into this.
Just realised you think I'm objecting to the term "3rd world countries". The term is outdated and no longer relevant today, but is not the issue. Re-read my comment - I agreed with the point but didn't like the finger pointing at devs in poorer countries. I'm not sure why that seems to have provoked a bunch of downvotes.
>And of course, the idiotic permissions system. Want to check to see if a user's on the phone? Gotta also get access to who they call and their IMEI and other permanent identifiers.
Use XPrivacy. It should be mandatory for anyone who uses a phone and has a clue about privacy.
It filters permission requests so when an app tries to use one, it gives you a popup with allow/deny temporarily/permanently options, so if an app wants to access something it shouldn't (location, contacts, device ID, etc.), you can feed it empty/fake data transparently to it.
This requires rooting, which (unfortunately) comes with all sorts of strings attached and ugly rough edges. I'd rather have the idea of a flexible permissions model built into the OS.
I'd like it too, but there are still innumerable things that also need root. I've never had a single problem from root and would never own a phone without root, for any reason. Without root, a phone just sucks too much.
Pry-fi (randomise MAC address when probing for wireless networks), Titanium Backup (backup that doesn't suck), most advanced network tools, changing FDE password to be different to lock screen password, running an sshd, detecting IMSI catchers, most performance fixes/optimisations, even just basic full filesystem access - all need root too.
But from using the Store, the overwhelming majority of crap appears to be distinctly from not the US. Having dealt with local MS subsidiaries, I'd be surprised if they didn't do similar stuff. The ones I've seen are quite eager to promote and can get cash from Redmond.
Or, seeing as how MS regularly publishes stuff that's a total fake, even when the publisher claims to be Microsoft itself, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't validate US residency here.
Or I might just be biased and the publishers just have terrible English and uncommon names for North America. But some of them used the letters "pvt ltd" in their fake company names, which is not common in the US.
Email me if you want some more details. I've got screenshots of lots of the junk, but I'm on my phone and don't have the links handy.
Being paid is common enough, and I've heard of companies getting 5-6 figures from MS to port stuff. But I think getting paid per app, like the link above shows, is the only explanation for some of the broken shovelware that's dumped on the store. Maybe advertising, but there doesn't seem to be any install volume. (Paid scams are a different story, like fake Netflix or WinRAR.)
I am a guy who gives everything to Google, have every god damn thing turned on on my Nexus. It's not that I trust Google, I have come to terms with the fact that privacy is dead.
The overall experience when you do give Goggle everything is quite good ( Google Now ) but I too second your opinion about Android permissions, its really idiotic.
BS. Privacy is not dead. You just gave up your privacy because you wanted a smartphone and wanted to use Google Now.
Privacy while connected to the internet is almost dead but even then it's weak to just surrender. And I think more people are fighting than you might think. Using an app like TextSecure for example is giving back a little privacy.
Yeah, it was pretty wild when I am seeing even reminders (flight times, show times, etc) from stuff that I received in my gmail inbox. It's convenient, and makes sense, but a bit unexpected.
Every time I use the Play store, it tries to get me to enter a phone number. The way it does this is by popping up a dialog, with no buttons except continue. It makes it look like you MUST do this (there's no indication you can back out), even though it's optional. That's deceptive.
And of course, the idiotic permissions system. Want to check to see if a user's on the phone? Gotta also get access to who they call and their IMEI and other permanent identifiers.
Basically, all the time I'm on my Android device, I feel like I've gotta be extra cautious, that Google's out to screw me over. Unfortunately, MS is just flubbing their system by pumping it full of crap. (They were paying devs in 3rd world countries $2000 to push out junk apps. They refuse to take down garbage/scams. They even published fake Windows Updates on the store, and other stuff that falsely claims to be by MS.) MS could fix it all immediately by offering Android app compatibility. I'd switch in a minute.
I use Firefox as my browser, mainly because of this. I wish I could switch to another smartphone platform.