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Why I will never again rate an Android app

20 points by chmike ↗ HN
A few days ago a colleague came into my office with his brand new table and told my that he installed the same Android app as me. WUT? How does he know what app I installed on my personnal smartphone ?

He showed me that, in his tablet google play, my icon and name was displayed under the app description. When I clicked on my icon, I could see other apps that I installed. WTF?

He then explains me that he added me in one of his Google+ circles. I then checked all my confidentiality otions and my G+ account. Everything is set to undisclose any information. I created the G+ account to lock my nae as I did with other social service. I'm not into exhibitionism. I don't publish any information on these services. I don't have my colleague in my cirles. G+ allows to see who added me in his circles. I saw that my Boss added me in his G+ account. There is another colleague and a totally unknown woman in a city 800 km away !?

I recently installed Waze on my Android smartphone. Every time it started it would display a dialog inviting me to rate the app. To get rid of the dialog and because I find it a good app, I rated it five star.

Today, I checked again on my colleague's tablet if anything changed after I reviewed my confidentiality options. The Waze app was added to the list. So rating an app is enough for your G+ followers to see it.

On this day I decide to never rate an Android app anymore. I don't find it right that my colleague and my Boss are notified on my apps rating on my personnal phone. This is a tool for spying.

I'm sorry for Android app developpers and user who would find the feedbak usefull. But things are getting Orwellian at Google. This is the type of problems you get with a monopole.

8 comments

[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 28.5 ms ] thread
chmike
Sorry for the typos. I can only edit the title, not the text. I wrote this with my iPad 1.
OJFord
I'm sorry this wasn't as you expected, but that is operating 'as advertised'.

There's some text when you rate that explains it will be shared.

chmike
I just checked on my phone and there is exactly no information provided on the sharing. I naively assumed that my rating would only affect the rating average seen in the playstore, and that would be all. I never left a comment because I don't want my identity to be advertised.

There is also this hard to find check box where I explicitly request not to share my recommendations : https://plus.google.com/settings/endorsements. I unchecked it as soon a it was advertised some year ago. From my perspective, Google is not respecting its contract.

If there is some text explaining me that the info is shared, could you tel me where I can find it ? I would expect a link would be visible in the dialog where the rating is performed. There is none.

Can I opt out of that ? More precisely, can I opt out that people tracking me against my will and control on Google+ see what Android apps I rated on my personal phone ?

brador
I'm gonna get crazy heat for this, but real talk: get an iPhone.

For now, Apple has not screwed their customers like Google/Android and has more granular privacy options.

_RPM
Seriously. That is going to be my next phone. I'm very sick of all the privacy issues with Android, and for a phone, I want something that Just Works. iPhone seems to be the logical solution. I'm sure it doesn't have a prompt that isn't able to be disabled when you turn on the GPS.
bookwormAT
At your first attempt to rate an app on Google Play, you got a dialog warning you that this will be connected to and visible on your account.

I find this information extremely useful, because a +1 from someone i know is more interesting than 5 stars from some random user.

However, I should be able to hide this / opt out after the fact.

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rajeshmr
I never signed for google+ and facebook for precisely this reason. Its all messed up!

And yeah, google did mention explicity and there was media coverage about this.

I am considering moving to an iPhone. I am just sick about android. I own the android phone but i dont control what i see on the phone. Ads pop all over the apps! And Games are worse! Full screen ads!! so annoying!! Take the money and leave me alone!