App permissions request

[129260]

I was wondering if avast for rooted users could add a remove permissions from apps? With a warning of course for advanced users.

[svehlak]

Well, at first you should not install apps with permissions which you do not like; from the other view, some apps could be seriously broken after such operation, because it can break the whole code or causing bad behavior like reboot, dead lock, etc. Anyway this feature could be very tricky, so I suppose it will bring more troubles than good.

[Filip Havlicek]

Hi,

well, we probably could, the question is whether we will or not. I can tell you that as far as I know, plans for the near future don't contain this, unfortunately. Maybe more requests here on the forum might help to change them, but no promises.

And as Jan said, it's quite tricky and non-experienced users of rooted devices might end up breaking the whole device (if they start removing permissions from system apps for example).

Filip

[mauro1970mvr]

And as Jan said, it's quite tricky and non-experienced users of rooted devices might end up breaking the whole device (if they start removing permissions from system apps for example).

Agreed it's very hard but your explanation is flawed.

1) "Non-experienced users" do not root their phone. In fact they won't even understand what rooting is for.
2) A "non-experienced user" of a rooted phone (someone who had their phones rooted by somebody else) could set up the firewall to block every single app including Avast itself and set up the PIN then forget it. Won't that break it too?

I'm hoping you guys will add that functionality soon. Some apps are getting way too intrusive. Reading personal data and broadcasting it is not enough. Google is coming up with even more aggressive permissions such as KILL_BACKGROUND_PROCESSES and GET_TASKS.

I see some games out there already using them (example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gameloft.android.ANMP.GloftKRHM) . The developers claim the functionality is needed to improve performance (great! keep your silly game with poor performance running and kill whatever app is using memory).

If an app detects and kills Avast, wouldn't that be quite concerning from your perspective?

Eventually it is going to happen. A developer wanting to force users to broadcast their phone number and who knows what else will want to kill the firewall first.

Please reconsider.

[Filip Havlicek]

Agreed it's very hard but your explanation is flawed.

1) "Non-experienced users" do not root their phone. In fact they won't even understand what rooting is for.
2) A "non-experienced user" of a rooted phone (someone who had their phones rooted by somebody else) could set up the firewall to block every single app including Avast itself and set up the PIN then forget it. Won't that break it too?

I'm hoping you guys will add that functionality soon. Some apps are getting way too intrusive. Reading personal data and broadcasting it is not enough. Google is coming up with even more aggressive permissions such as KILL_BACKGROUND_PROCESSES and GET_TASKS.

I see some games out there already using them (example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gameloft.android.ANMP.GloftKRHM) . The developers claim the functionality is needed to improve performance (great! keep your silly game with poor performance running and kill whatever app is using memory).

If an app detects and kills Avast, wouldn't that be quite concerning from your perspective?

Eventually it is going to happen. A developer wanting to force users to broadcast their phone number and who knows what else will want to kill the firewall first.

Please reconsider.

1) Correct, but see your no. 2 (I know such people).
2) Not really, you would only block the Internet access. I'm talking about removing permissions from launcher for example. I didn't try it, but I imagine the OS might not be bootable in some cases after such change.

If you have our icon enabled, not even apps with the kill permission can't kill AMS. If you have the icon disabled, you have been warned about such possibility during the process so it's kinda up to you and not our fault if we get killed (even though we try not to). If you turn off the self-defense then it's turned off.

On top of that, the firewall can't be killed, it's not a realtime shield of any kind, the settings are saved in the system itself.

Filip

[mauro1970mvr]

I must insist: I just hope you consider implementing a permissions manager.

"If you have the icon disabled, you have been warned about such possibility during the process so it's kinda up to you and not our fault if we get killed (even though we try not to)."

Turning off the icon only gives this message "The notification icon helps avast! protect your device better."
That didn''t imply the shields could be killed by other applications. Thanks for the tip.                           
                                                                                                                                                 

[Filip Havlicek]

Hi,

told my management about this request. Not much else I can do at the moment.

Filip