Angry Birds wants to know who I call!

[Naira]

My boyfriend bought me an android phone recently. I wanted to get a new phone for quite a few months and, since he wanted to get me a "good" present because I started a new job, he got me my first android.

Anyway, after downloading an anti-virus and Skype, I decided to try out some games. Angry Birds Space was at the top of the list and I proceeded with downloading it. However, when I checked on the permissions it required, I noticed that it wanted access to my phone records, the state of my phone (if it is dialing some number or not) etc.

Why on earth does a game need to know that?

I guess I'll just install it on my computer...

 

[Amaris]

It's a way to make money. Information collection is everything. You buy the app and you sweeten the deal by letting it keep track of your phone records. Data collection.

Facebook is bad for that kind of thing, too, and people just merrily click OK when the app to let you make cakes is also posting as you, getting information on all of your friends, keeping track of when and where you login, and your favorites/likes.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Is there someone out there keeping track of what kinds of information these apps try to phone home with?

 

[Starkers]

I have chosen not to download some apps based on this kind of thing, but most of them want some access to stuff on your phone you don't neccesarily wanna give them. I'm sure in most cases there isn't anything harmful per se in granting access, but it always freaks me out a little.

 

[Methos]

ok, bare with me because this delves a bit into the more development aspects of Android phones... this works on Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich... not tried it on Gingerbread or previous though...

Go on the Android Market and look for "apktool" and install "Android Debug Bridge" on your PC...

http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/adb.html

Next, run the following command to extract the APK and “decode” the application...

I'll use AngryBirds as the example here...

apktool decode com.androgames.angrybirds.apk angrybirdssafe

You will notice in the new directory that was just created there is an AndroidManifest.xml file which you can read in any text editor. Next, you will see the “uses-permission” tags typically at the end of the file. Normally for most APK's, the app requestins four permissions: INTERNET, ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE, RECEIVE_SMS, and READ_CONTACTS.

Next, remove the tags for the permissions you don’t want the application to have. In this case, remove the permissions for RECEIVE_SMS and READ_CONTACTS.

You can also pull out things like the “SMSReceiver” tag a little higher up in the file. Save your changes, then head back to the command line to have apktool rebuild the application.

apktool build angrybirdssafe

This step will create an “out.apk” file in the subfolder... But before you can install it on your phone, you must first sign the apk... Pretty simple command line again...

jarsigner -verbose -keystore my-release-key.keystore out.apk igkey

plug in your device and finish things off with the “adp install out.apk” command. You will now notice when you view the application’s permission in the Settings->Applications->Manage Applications menu, the unwanted permissions are gone

M

 

[auntiehill]

ok, bare with me because this delves a bit into the more development aspects of Android phones... this works on Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich... not tried it on Gingerbread or previous though...

Hehe. It's very kind of you to help her with her phone, but the invitation to strip is a bit much.

 

[Vulcan Princess]

Thanks, Methos! I've been using the native feature in CyanogenMod7 to revoke permissions, but it sometimes causes apps to crash. I'll have to give this a try.

I've also used LBE Privacy Guard to revoke permissions. I haven't noticed any stability issues, but I don't think it actually works. (I still see ads in apps I've revoked internet permission for. So unless the ads are stored in the app, it's still getting on the internet.)

 

[Holdfast]

It's a way to make money.

Rovio (Angry Birds' maker) has been given a potential IPO valuation of $9bn.

If they want to make that valuation stick, they're going to harvest and sell a hell of a lot of peoples' data...

 

[Methos]

happy to help...

i always trust going in and ripping the code / permissions apart manually over trusting another app to do it for me... i go through pretty much every app before i install it anyway, advantage on having a ton of developer kit on my main pc lol

M

 

[scotpens]

The title of this thread makes me think of those ads for Hitchcock's The Birds that said, "The Birds Is Coming."

 

[Tora Ziyal]

ok, bare with me because this delves a bit into the more development aspects of Android phones... this works on Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich... not tried it on Gingerbread or previous though...

Hehe. It's very kind of you to help her with her phone, but the invitation to strip is a bit much.

But to be expected, given what we know about Methos.

 

[Naira]

Very interesting Methos. The main reason I wanted an android was that I want to start playing around with app development, so this is interesting for two reasons.

 

[Methos]

ahh cool

well if you do want any more dev help, i'm always here to help...

literally just tearing apart an Ice Cream Sandwich Rom here so i can rebuild my Galaxy Note with custom software

M