Oruxmaps 5.0 Update on Play Store -> why phone status and identity?

Hi,

today I checked the play store and happily noticed that Oruxmaps is finally available in version 5.0.
However, it is available as manual update only, so some new right(s) is/are required.

A check revealed that with version 5.0 Oruxmaps now accesses phone status and identity.
This surprised me a lot and in fact it gives me very bad feelings.

So to start with a question: what is the reason that OM needs to know my phone number,
my phone identity, and if I am just talking and to whom?

I checked the release notes in the market and did not find an explanation.

Just to be clear: I like OM very much, use it often and have purchased the donation version.
I am very grateful for this fine piece of software. But unless I get a good explanation for the need
of such rights which I consider critical from a privacy point of view, I shall not install the update.
However, at this point in time I have a hard time to imagine such an explanation.

I really hope my suspicion is not valid and such a reason does exist or even better this is just a
bug and a fix will remove these rights.

BR
c65

c65 wrote:Hi,

today I checked the play store and happily noticed that Oruxmaps is finally available in version 5.0.
However, it is available as manual update only, so some new right(s) is/are required.

A check revealed that with version 5.0 Oruxmaps now accesses phone status and identity.
This surprised me a lot and in fact it gives me very bad feelings.

So to start with a question: what is the reason that OM needs to know my phone number,
my phone identity, and if I am just talking and to whom?

I checked the release notes in the market and did not find an explanation.

Just to be clear: I like OM very much, use it often and have purchased the donation version.
I am very grateful for this fine piece of software. But unless I get a good explanation for the need
of such rights which I consider critical from a privacy point of view, I shall not install the update.
However, at this point in time I have a hard time to imagine such an explanation.

I really hope my suspicion is not valid and such a reason does exist or even better this is just a
bug and a fix will remove these rights.

BR
c65

Hi;

Current version can do 'live tracking' using gpsgate.com protocol.

That prococol needs the IMEI of the device; because of that OruxMaps needs that permission.

I am going to add a message to the 'whats new' dialog.

orux

Orux, thanks for your reply.

I think it would be wise to more openly communicate usage of privacy related rights.

I am not one of the kids who give away their data and identity without thinkink about it twice.
The number of views of this subject in this short time indicates to me that there are more people
who think like me or are at least interested in this subject.

Some follow-up questions:
- Is OM accessing any more information than the imei which are controlled by this right?
- Will OM access any of the information (including imei) out of the box after installation?
- Can I disable OM access to part/all of the information by configuration? If yes, how is that done?

To sum it up:
I would very much prefer OM not to use this right. I shall not use live tracking, so that feature is useless to me.
(I know that other people's mileage may vary...).

TIA
c65

c65 wrote:Orux, thanks for your reply.

I think it would be wise to more openly communicate usage of privacy related rights.

I am not one of the kids who give away their data and identity without thinkink about it twice.
The number of views of this subject in this short time indicates to me that there are more people
who think like me or are at least interested in this subject.

Some follow-up questions:
- Is OM accessing any more information than the imei which are controlled by this right?
- Will OM access any of the information (including imei) out of the box after installation?
- Can I disable OM access to part/all of the information by configuration? If yes, how is that done?

To sum it up:
I would very much prefer OM not to use this right. I shall not use live tracking, so that feature is useless to me.
(I know that other people's mileage may vary...).

TIA
c65

Honestly, there is no warning because after more than 13,000 downloads of the beta application, nobody made ​​no objection to the new permissions.

The problem with android is that the permissions must be declared in the manifest, you can not ask the user to accept / reject one or the other. The alternative is to build various applications, each with a different set of permissions, this makes much difficult the management of the applications.

The solution is quite simple, ask users to enter the IMEI voluntarily by hand, if they want to use OruxMaps with GpsGate integration.

I therefore thought that this permission was not a major problem, I thought that after so many time people trusted OruxMaps.

I will release a new version without that permission.

orux

Hi Orux,

Whilst acknowledging c65's concerns regarding privacy, I would counter that your software has a reputation for legitimacy and trustworthiness. As you quite rightly state, 13000 downloads is a consensus for maintaining the features you have spent so much time working on.

The GpsGate integration is an important capability for some users of OruxMaps (I count myself here).

Please don't remove this feature. I would suggest that users who have a problem with the IMEI permission also have a choice not to use the software.

@Orux
Thanks a lot for respecting my concerns. I know that I just expressed my personal view, and that I cannot declare to speak
for anyone else. The solution which you outlined in your post seems perfect to me. Provide the feature
but let the users enter their imei by hand if they want to use it.
You may take my request as distrust and that is partly true, but you should not take it personal. It is rather instigated
from the (bad) experience that you make when you crawl through the lots of android applications. Every so often you ask yourself
"why the h*ll do the need to know that".

@Icarus:
Needless to say that I disagree with your suggestion to just not use OM. As I wrote earlier I use it regularly and with
great pleasure. I just dislike this notion of "I want it so badly so I just don't care what information I have to disclose
for it". For OM, we're at a fork in the road here and I just thought I'd make myself heard. It's not that this right
has always been required before as you seem to imply.

PS: I just noticed that there is a version 5.0.2 with gpsgate support temporarily removed. Installed it already. For all
gpsgate users, this feature will probably be back with the above solution.

I understand the concerns of c65. I'm one of the 13000 people probably. Having followed OM for years(paypal'ed a few bucks along the way), I trust the dev & the app, so its a go.
Anyway, its probably difficult to monetize a list of bare IMEIs..
OM permissions are still light, compared to what is on the market. It is obvious that orux tries to keep them at a minimum while programming.


C65, If you have some skill in techie computer stuff, you may want to tune your android device to have a better control of privacy:
For restricting access to the internet on a per-app basis, one can install a firewall like droidwall/afwall.
For restricting access to personnal data such as IMEI and contacts, its called 'PDroid' [P for paranoid]... but is a real challenge to set it up even for tech people.

Keep up the good work, orux !