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Everyone knows all the apps on your phone

(peabee.substack.com)
1192 points gniting | 1 comments | 29 Mar 25 21:26 UTC | HN request time: 0.35s | source
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zx8080 ◴[29 Mar 25 23:53 UTC] No.43519828[source]▶
> For extremely specific use cases such as file managers, browsers or antivirus apps, Google grants an exception by allowing QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES permission, which provides full visibility into installed apps.

Why would browser need to enumerate the installed apps?

Why?!

replies(6): >>43519852 #>>43519860 #>>43521776 #>>43522253 #>>43522261 #>>43522492 #
1. nulld3v ◴[30 Mar 25 07:52 UTC] No.43522253[source]▶
File managers need full access as you can use that ability to extract and inspect the code of any apps installed on the system. It is a very useful feature and I would hate for it to be removed.