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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: 0s | 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?!

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Borealid ◴[29 Mar 25 23:58 UTC] No.43519852[source]▶
When a user visits a play.google.com URL Google wants to be able to show either an "install" or a "launch" button contingent on whether the app is already installed.

In other words, blame Google product management.

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Jach ◴[30 Mar 25 01:33 UTC] No.43520420[source]▶
I don't buy this. Google has this information on their backend, they don't need to query any local state. Indeed, when I visit a play.google.com URL, google checks if my browser is logged in or not. If it is not, the default is "Install" no matter what. If I do have a session, then it's either "Install" if I don't have it installed, or "Install on more devices" if I do have it installed.
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1. NoahZuniga ◴[30 Mar 25 14:25 UTC] No.43524464[source]▶
This is true, but if they didn't allow this permission for other browser apps that would be anti-competitive.