Idea I have for the privacy/vulnerable-to-monitoring users is a mode called permission mode which when enabled will require any app that needs access to location, internet etc will have to ask permission every time. So if you at a particular moment want to restrict location requests on leaking apps like twitter, Facebook etc without deleting or navigating into the privacy settings you would enable permission mode which will block everything the os can unless you permit it.
Does this sound useful? I have been thinking where could /e/ provide feature wise that improves transparency and understanding around how app leakage works.
Actually, I think this is already possible to filter every permission, but there is no easy button like you suggest.
In the Trust section then the 3 dots then “Advanced” (not sure but it should be something like that), you can change for each app the autorisation and set “Always Ask”.
I had a look, I couldn’t find the always ask permission option under either the trust or apps and notification settings. But yeah the button would turn everything off in the apps and notifications -> app permission settings then have them ask each time on a app by app basis.
Okay so that’s good with the functionality already there, would it be worthwhile to then have a mode in the drop down menu where you can turn it on on for all apps? I can see it being handy if you use for example Instagram but want to turn its microphone access off. Obviously any cautious person would never install such a app or disable the access which in Instagram case blocks access to features unless turned on.
Actually I think it wouldn’t be that good. When everything is set to Always Ask, you end with a buggy phone (for me an SMS has been lost because QKSMS wasn’t able to access SMS immediatly), and a lot of pop up appear in order to ask you five times in the same minute the same permission.
A solution could be not to include system apps of the “Set Always Ask” feature, but it would be the same with user apps that run in background and need a permission. (So it’s not a solution)
I think the simpliest solution, is not to bother the development team with that and let the user set all its applications permissions at “Always Ask”. It just takes a few minutes.
Since Trust is brought by LineageOS, I think it’s available for both Nougat and Oreo but I can’t be sure because I don’t have an /e/ Nougat phone.
Trust (by name) is not available on Nougat. We have Settings → Privacy → Privacy Guard of course but yes, prompting is available which I never paid attention to before. There are toggles for various items. For items without a toggle I always thought they were just informative info. When long-pressed, however, we get the options including Always Ask. So Nougat users are good to go.
