FTC Drops the Hammer On Maker of Location-Sharing Flashlight App 187
chicksdaddy writes "The Federal Trade Commission announced on Thursday that it settled with the maker of 'Brightest Flashlight Free,' a popular Android mobile application, over charges that the company used deceptive advertising to collect location and device information from Android owners. The FTC says the company failed to disclose wanton harvesting and sharing of customers' locations and mobile device identities with third parties. Brightest Flashlight Free, which allows Android owners to use their phone as a flashlight, is a top download from Google Play, the main Android marketplace. Statistics from the site indicate that it has been downloaded more than one million times with an overall rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars. The application, which is available for free, displays mobile advertisements on the devices it is installed on. However, the device also harvested a wide range of data from Android phones which was shared with advertisers, including what the FTC describes as 'precise geolocation along with persistent device identifiers.' As part of the settlement with the FTC, Goldenshores is ordered to change its advertisements and in-app disclosures to make explicit any collection of geolocation information, how it is or may be used, the reason for collecting location information and which third parties that data is shared with."
Location obviously needed (Score:5, Funny)
Re: Location obviously needed (Score:5, Insightful)
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Have to wonder how many other apps are doing this that have not been caught yet
That's the big problem, the FTC is currently playing a losing game of whack-a-mole. The ultimate solution is to inform the developer community that there will be a three month grace period for them to come clean. After that start throwing offenders in prison until the problem goes away. Currently there are no enforced consequences, all the FTC was able to do is get Goldenshores Technologies, LLC, to agree to obey current laws on deceptive business practices and fraud. The scumbag owner is currently laughing
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You could make that argument about all crime.
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Have to wonder how many other apps are doing this that have not been caught yet
A lot, and I mean a damned lot. Even most basic QR readers do it now.
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Droidlight has been around as long as Androids. Why is there need for competition in a free flashlight app?
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Security model (Score:3, Interesting)
If someone still says that Android's (or IOS I suppose) security model isn't completely broken...
Why can't the user choose to disable networking on a per-app level?
Re:Security model (Score:5, Informative)
On iOS, you do have granular permissions - if an app requests your location, you can say no, and the app can go fuck itself - the API doesn't give it shit. It's not all-or-nothing.
Disabling data access per app is a different story though, so your point still stands.
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"Disabling data access per app is a different story though, so your point still stands."
On iOS 7 you can do this, but only if you're not using wifi. In the prefs you can turn off cellular data access on a per app basis. You can also see how much of your cellular data plan each app is eating.
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This has been true on Android also since 4.0
http://www.droid-life.com/2012/10/01/how-to-set-data-limits-on-android-beginners-guide/ [droid-life.com]
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They'd fail the technical requirements checklist and never be allowed on the store.
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Even if application permissions were granted individually and even if application developers wrote their code in such a way that the application would behave as normally as possible without them, what's there to stop them from sabotaging the application in another manner until it's granted the permission they want? For example, let's say an application requests location access, and until it's granted, it simply "decides" not to work. Another example, one that cannot be simulated, is network access. Rinse, wash, repeat.
Thats exactly how things should work -- if the app author doesn't want to let the app run without whatever permissions he deems as neccessary, then he should just have the app refuse to run without the permission.
Then the user can decide if he wants the app enough to let it have whatever permission it wants.
If I install a flashlight app that wants network access and it refuses to work if I deny that access, then I would uninstall the app and give it a bad review.
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Permissions? (Score:2, Insightful)
Who gives a flashlight app permissions to access location, internet, flash drive, etc?
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Who gives a flashlight app permissions to access location, internet, flash drive, etc?
Only some rooted android phones (or custom ROMs) allow fine-grained access to allow/deny explicit permissions for applications. Every 'droid I've had with T-Mobile and AT&T has not allowed such control by default. Only a select few actually look at the requested permissions before agreeing to install an app, even worse, the android permissions are incredibly vague. "Phone State" means idle/sleep/calling/etc..., but the wording sounds like any app can make calls on your behalf.
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Only some rooted android phones (or custom ROMs) allow fine-grained access to allow/deny explicit permissions for applications
Not true. Stock Android 4.3 has that functionality. It's just buried under a lot of menu choices.
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Who gives a flashlight app permissions to access location, internet, flash drive, etc?
users who have finally seen the light, that's who.
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Who gives a flashlight app permissions to access location, internet, flash drive, etc?
users who have finally seen the light, that's who.
No, it would appear to be users who are left in the dark.
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And one of these days, Apple is going to make use of the HumancentiPad clause in the iTunes agreement pop up!
Some Hammer (Score:5, Insightful)
No civil fines.
No criminal penalties.
No admission of guilt.
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That's because they are a corporation.
A corporation under US law is a "Person" that is superior to humans and thus cannot be faulted for anything.
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That's because judges are only human, and who are they to question the motives of a Corporation.
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Nerf hammers *are* technically hammers.
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Yes, I've seen this type of hammer before. My son has one. It's a big blue inflatable thing that goes "Squeek!" when you hit stuff with it. The FTC must obviously have one much like it. Maybe they got theirs from a country fair as well...
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Don't be Naive (Score:5, Insightful)
Up front permissions bad plan (Score:2)
It's a pain, but the average user needs to start actually paying attention to app permissions.
Except the "average user" literally CANNOT understand the permissions being asked for.
That's why an up-front model for permissions is inherently broken. If an app sneaks in location in the set of permissions an "average user" will never see it. If it asks them if the flashlight app can have their location when they run it, or access to contacts - there's few people that would agree to that.
Why can't they copy this from iOS? (Score:5, Insightful)
I have an iPhone 5 and a Nexus 7.
When I download an app on the Nexus, I always feel an uneasiness as I look at all the access it wants to my contacts and other invasively unnecessary permissions. So each time I must make a decision to accept or reject using the app. I've rejected some that just seem overreaching, but I've become less strict over time... like I'm accepting to lose a battle. I assure myself, that my phone has all my real contacts, not my Nexus 7 and then begrudgingly accept the conditions. This is one reason I will not use an android phone and why I rarely download apps on android.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/12/06/1452241/ftc-drops-the-hammer-on-maker-of-location-sharing-flashlight-app# [slashdot.org]
iOS, for those that don't know, will let me decline permissions to track my location or share my contacts on a per-app basis. Even if I enabled it before, I can go into the control center and disable it. I don't benefit from that aspect of the iOS app, but I'm fine with that. For all the control that Android is supposed to give the user, iOS shines here and I wish that is one thing that Android would copy.
Re:Why can't they copy this from iOS? (Score:4, Informative)
Oh you have a Nexus 7? Perfect, you can download App Ops to select permissions on a per-app basis.
Any Android 4.3 or higher device supports it. And root is not required.
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1. Don't download apps that use permissions you wouldn't give them
2. If you're using Android 4.3/4.4, look for 'App Ops' (The one that requires zero permissions) from the play store. It allows you to turn specific (though not all alas) permissions off per app: Notably SMS, reading contacts, keeping the phone on, polling your location, call log/making calls/clipboard/audio focus/camera/record audio/modifying system settings...
The benefit of Android's App Ops is that it also tells you when the app last used
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2. If you're using Android 4.3/4.4, look for 'App Ops'
Citation required. I did a google for "App Ops" and there are at least four different apps on the Play store called "App Ops", and two also-rans called "Permission Manager".
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I used this one btw: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fr.slvn.appops [google.com]
And I have verified that disabling a permission changes the behaviour of the apps (PvZ2 normally diables outside sound, but this change overrides that, so you can still listen to music while playing for example).
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You apparently don't understand what a *design* patent is.
So No One Thought It Odd (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd heard Cyanogenmod was experimenting with a means to deny specific privs to an application rather than take the all-or-nothing approach of "You have to give me all this shit or you can't install it." That's a feature I'd really like to have for my Android phone.
Re:So No One Thought It Odd (Score:5, Insightful)
Not to mention that although for a very basic app (like a flashlight one) it is possible to spot a nefarious permission, once you start looking a much more feature-rich app then it gets very difficult for users to work out the validity of the permission requested.
For example, a mobile banking app wants your location. Is this because:
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How is the user to differentiate legitimate vs illegitimate use of GPS and network access?
For instance, a restaurant review application wants GPS info to tell you what restaurants are near by, and needs network access to load data. Perfectly legitimate needs for those permissions and without those permissions being granted, the app is pretty useless
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The restaurant app needs to phone home with the location data in order to get the list of nearby restaurants. Once it is on their server, what they do with it is outwith your control, but restaurants will probably pay a referral based commission so they will need to have details of where people use their apps for that purpose.
FOSS flashlight app (Score:2)
The answer is the user can't differentiate, unless we have access to the source code.
So here's an open source flashlight app you should be using:
MrWhite: https://fdroid.org/wiki/page/org.bc_bd.mrwhite [fdroid.org]
Or Torch: https://fdroid.org/wiki/page/com.colinmcdonough.android.torch [fdroid.org]
Install them by installing the F-Droid (FOSS for Android) package manager from Google Play.
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But how do I know that F-Droid is clean? :)
I wasn't looking for suggestions for a flashlight app. It was more of a specific example in an abstract discussion. My comment's parent asked the specific question why a flashlight app needs gps and network permissions to which I suggested legitimate reasons why such permissions would be requested. They may not be needed for the app to operate correctly, but they may be needed to support the developer's work.
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Unfortunately app permissions on Android are currently "all-or-nothing" and, worse, they're requested all at once at installation, so users are conditioned to just click through it and make the app work. (See also: Windows UAC prompts.) It's a design issue, not a user intelligence issue.
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The problem with the Android permissions mo
How dare they! (Score:2)
Only the NSA may track every phone on the planet [slashdot.org]!
But in their defense, you at least got a free flashlight out of it and your tax money didn't have to pay for it, so...
The true cost of free (Score:4, Insightful)
As someone that used to work with mobile security - this is tiny minority that got caught. If you carry your mobile phone with you, then you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. Treat your smartphone as a combination of public WiFi and a court-assigned GSP tracking ankle bracelet.
Oh! (Score:2)
flAshlight app. With an 'a'. Had me worried for a bit.
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Why would a Fleshlight app (which I guess you meant with that joke) make you worry?
A Fleshlight app by itself wouldn't. A "Location-Sharing Fleshlight App" on the other hand...
Redundant and weird. (Score:2)
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Yeah, and what a hammer it is *sarcasm* (Score:2)
This settlement meant that the company had to do NOTHING other than to go forth and sin no more. They did not have to pay a single solitary dime, consent to long-term monitoring, or do anything really, beyond promising they would not continue to do something they unambiguously should never have been doing in the first place.
Yeah, that'll teach 'em!
Andorid tells you app permissions (Score:2)
When you install an app, Andorid tells you the permissions the app needs and asks you to confirm.
If your'e dumb enough to not question why a flashlight app would need access to GPS and the internet, and you still install the app anyway, then you deserve all you get.
That'll get the data back! (Score:2)
For that matter, what about the data already in the hands of the 3rd parties? They can do whatever they want with it with impunity.
Maybe we need to hold 3rd party marketers liable, too. Pawn shops are on the hook if they buy stolen items. Let's
I was offered money to add spyware to my app (Score:5, Interesting)
I have a couple of calculator apps on the Android market. Obviously, a calculator has zero need for any of your personal data, and that's how much I collect -- zero.
I recently received an email from "Appayable.com". They provide me with a spyware module to add to my apps. The spyware module collects users' personal data and uploads it to Appayable.com. I get paid. Profit!
They say they only sell anonymized data, but I still thought it was a pretty reprehensible business model. I suspect it's pretty common practice, though.
The letter:
I noticed that RpnCalc Financial -- HP 12C has seen a growing number of downloads in recent weeks. I wanted to reach out and discuss how my company, Appayable, offers developers the opportunity to monetize their app without placing ads or impacting user experience
We pull the social profile of your users, anonymize the data, and identify the mobile device. Appayable's SDK does not take up screen real estate on your application, maintaining the great user experience, and providing more revenue for you. Plus, we do not rely on impressions - as we do not place ads within your app - thus, you generate revenue based on a single download and install. No need to retain the user - only have them open the application once.
The revenue stream created is ongoing based on our data partnerships, regardless of continued use of the mobile application.
We've worked hard to make it really simple for you to integrate our service into your app, and as a result have over 6,500 applications on our platform in only 6-months! Whe you have a few minutes, I'd love to talk to you or the appropriate person about working with us.
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I get this too. Also get emails where people have uploaded my apps and created an account for me to some korean market.
I think the ones I hate the most though are the emails asking if I want to buy fake ratings.
Simple LED Widget (Score:4, Informative)
I just recently got a Nexus 5 to replace my aging Nokia N9 and was amazed by the near complete lack of simple tools that don't want access to your data in return. For the N9, there were a ton of useful free open source tools provided by the community over at maemo.org [maemo.org]. That community was great. Every time I thought that there was something that was missing or new capability I wanted, I'd look there and find an app that already exists or a group of people in the process of building it.
The contrast between that experience and the excessive commercialism of Android was startling. After looking around for a while I did find this Simple LED Widget [google.com] that is just what it says and doesn't require any unnecessary permissions, but I had to sift through dozens of apps like the one in the TFA.
Is there anything even close to maemo.org for Android? I've heard some good things about F-Droid [f-droid.org], but I haven't looked into it enough yet to know if it's the best option.
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Me too. I just switched from iphone to N5. I couldn't find the built-in flashlight app that I assumed would have been standard fare at this point. Go to the Play store and the first 10 or so flashlight apps all want access to your phone calls, sms, filesystem, and network.... I finally found one that wanted only Camera access and Network. I still don't know why an app to toggle a GPIO would want access to the network... Other things that are basic functionality on IOS are apps you have to download and m
the missing app (Score:4, Insightful)
What's obviously missing is a Mock App - something that will satisfy all those requests and provide them with the data they want - fake data.
Sadly, I don't expect Google - whose revenue stream is largely based on advertisement - would make that possible in Android.
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I was playing candy crush (I know, you can laugh or cry), when I got one of those full screen video ads. Since my volumes controls aren't linked to the ringer, I was pretty startled by the noise. Glad I wasn't sneaking a game during a meeting....
Adaway is the first app I install now.
You kids and your apps! (Score:2)
Why isn't there more comprehensive oversight of these apps before they're released to the public? Can't they require the source code be submitted to the 'app stores', and proofread to prevent this sort of thing from happening?
Sad state of the Android Market (Score:2)
1) Use DroidLight. It's by Motorola, but it works on non-motorola phones too. It requires no permissions.
2) We are in a sad state of affairs.
9 out of 10 flashlight apps in the Android store require unnecessary permissions. The Android store needs ONE flashlight app. Maybe 2. Unfortunately, idiots download apps that requires 100 permissions, then rank it a 5/5. This is such a trivial problem for Google to solve: one Google Play Store employee could ban 90% of those apps with a day of research and resol
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1) Use DroidLight. It's by Motorola, but it works on non-motorola phones too. It requires no permissions.
The ability to control the flashlight is a permission.
It also, perhaps for non-nefarious reasons, requires the "Take pictures and videos" permission.
My Samsung Galaxy SIII Mini, for what it's worth, came with a home screen widget called "Assistive Light" which turns on the flash instantly, unlike every single app I tried, all of which took seconds.
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ah, so that's why the display on the back side of my phone left me seeing red
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Re:This app never seemed necessary (Score:5, Insightful)
But why doesn't Android sandbox apps in a way that the app is unaware of? Just present all apps with an empty contact list, a fake GPS location, an empty drive, etc and the user grants permissions to substitute the real ones as needed. That way, all apps could be installed and you'd get a popup such as "this app wants your location" in a similar way to IOS, only this way the app would keep working if you said no.
Re:This app never seemed necessary (Score:5, Insightful)
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Not just Google's.
The entire free app ecosystem depends on the sharing of information. If the information is fake the value of it goes down. Bye bye free app.
Somehow I don't have too much of a problem with sharing a bit of info in exchange for something useful.
For non-evil Android apps, see F-Droid (Score:3)
What app do u make?(desperately seeking non-evil android apps)
Whenever I'm looking for an app of some kind, I check F-Droid [f-droid.org] first.
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There used to be a utility called LBE Privacy Guard which did exactly this in earlier versions of Android, and on jailbroken iPhones, a utility called PMP (protect my privacy.) If the app wants contacts, it gets randomly generated cards. Songs, similar. Location, it gets where you select. Photos? Fake photos or an empty drive, ad id? Randomly generated.
Only thing is that LBE Privacy Guard has not been updated for the past few versions of Android.
Pretty much, one's best defense against a rogue fleshlig
Re:This app never seemed necessary (Score:4, Funny)
Re: This app never seemed necessary (Score:3, Informative)
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Cyanogenmod has this feature, it's called Privacy Guard. It states: "When Privacy Guard is enabled, the app will not be able to access personal data such as contacts, messages or call logs."
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Same reason your PC doesn't: developers and users have a natural conflict of interests, and developers have the control.
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Indeed, why do you need an APP for this. My ROM (CM 10.2) has a "torch" function built in. Why would you need an app for it?
This is not an Android problem this is a problem with crappy carrier priorities. Must bundle crap nobody wants, and not include the obvious highly requested features.
Re:This app never seemed necessary (Score:4, Insightful)
You make it an app because it makes no sense to integrate such a feature directly in the OS/ROM - it would take longer, and that way you can update it and have additional features (morse code flashing, for example).
What baffles me is why people would install an app named "Brightest Flashlight Free" (name sounds like a moron-magnet), which probably require network access and include ads, when there are tens of ads-less Open-Source alternatives in the Google market as well as outside it.
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What baffles me is why people would install an app named "Brightest Flashlight Free" (name sounds like a moron-magnet)
Because the open source ones aren't as bright. dur.
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"Brightest Flashlight Free" (name sounds like a moron-magnet)
That's why. My brother was building a website for a (legitimate) investment company, and the owner said to him, "it looks to good. Make it look more scammy." The owner said that because a scammy-looking website gets more customers.
The world is such a depressing place.
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There is a way to "self censor" the app, which is to download it, mark it 1 star and give a crappy review. Enough people do that, and the app fades into obscurity. Crappy apps should be named and shamed this way.
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There is a way to "self censor" the app, which is to download it, mark it 1 star and give a crappy review. Enough people do that, and the app fades into obscurity.
Depending on how the store works, downloading to crappy rate it may just boost it's popularity, which gives it more visibility, not less.
At least, that's how it works on the Apple App Store (which I believe has popularity which uses downloads/time, and grossing which uses revenue/time). Not sure if Android's equivalents use that or just have lists that are just based of ranking alone.
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Google tends to keep the algorithm secret for apps showing as "top" but I'm pretty sure one of the things they look at is how quickly people uninstall. User retention is (supposedly) a heavily weighted metric.
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DO AS WE SAY NOT AS WE DO!
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The government has a lot of balls pointing fingers like that...
I don't believe it is fingers that they are pointing.
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When you installed it, didn't you look at the list of what it has access to? If I saw it wanting to get my location I would have stopped right there and not installed it. No flashlight app needs to know my location to work.
Re:As a user (Score:4, Insightful)
I think at this point, the default mode for most Android users is to just allow, as most apps have a laundry list of things they want access to. It's probably the second-least read message from an app install of all time (first being the EULA).
No, that is not wise. But people aren't always wise.
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When I read the access request for any Android app, I end up declining. SD card, network, contacts, and location access, for a kitchen timer? No thanks. That's why I have no apps on my phone and why I miss my Startac.
And I just don't have the time to mess around with custom roms or rooting the phone.
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When I read the access request for any Android app, I end up declining. SD card, network, contacts, and location access, for a kitchen timer? No thanks. That's why I have no apps on my phone and why I miss my Startac.
I'm looking for a feature phone to replace my smartphone now. There just are no apps I'm willing to install, plus I want physical buttons.
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When you installed it, didn't you look at the list of what it has access to? If I saw it wanting to get my location I would have stopped right there and not installed it. No flashlight app needs to know my location to work.
Many ad supported apps want your location so they can serve geo targeted ads.
Though there are plenty of free non, ad-supported flashlight apps. The only permission the app I'm using has is the ability to access the camera.
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Should have said "products".
"Brightest Flashlight Free" (Score:2)
Just the name of the app already triggers my warning bells. Poor grammar (why is "Free" in the app name, let alone at the end?!) and the "Brightest!" modifier (reminds me of all those countries with "People's" and "Democratic" in the names) make me suspicious. And this was in the Google store? Shame, Google.
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Presumably Free is in the name to contrast it with a potential non-free version. Many iOS apps do it that way, though now I think you could use in app purchase to turn off the ads (in the free version) instead.
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Thanks for reminding me--a flashlight app with ads?! So very wrong. I love it when people try to make money off of something I could probably code myself in less than a day.
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Having no experience with the setup, I suspect it would take a little time for me to familiarize myself with how to package it. And are there any platform considerations? As this is Android...
Note also that I said "probably less than a day," which would cover "minutes."
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TeslaLED
YAA - com.volsa.torch (Simple Torch) (Score:2)
It is as clean as possible. Only does what it needs to do.