Here is an interesting pattern of unfriendly application behavior that could have been easily avoided if programmers and businessmen talked like ordinary people.



I have a Pioneer / Onkyo sound system. This is a good technique that comes with a (not too crappy) Android application for remote control.



Once the application was updated and showed a standard changelog with “bug fixes and improvements”, but when opened it jumped out:

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Lord, why should the remote control know my location? I decided that this was due to some sort of nonsense marketing, so I refused. Then the application refused to work.





Leave aside the malicious grammar violations in the pop-up window. We have a situation: the program used to work normally, but now it’s broken because the developer didn’t think that someone would dare to refuse to request confidential data.



Like several other users, I sent a complaint. A few weeks later they published an update:

WHAT'S NEW. Indication of changing permissions to indicate the location of the device only when necessary



* When using Android 4 or 5, the display occurs when installing the application or updating to the latest version.



* Why do I need the location of the device? Answer: SSID and access points are required to configure the wireless devices around. The device location information is not used for any other purpose.

A new application works even if you disable tracking. Happened!

Reason number 1

The first mistake was made by the Pioneer / Onkyo developers. They were supposed to show a message like "Hey, we would like to know your location, so that we can ...", and then give the user a conscious choice whether to provide information or not.



If the user refuses, provide some other method to perform the operation manually.

Reason number 2

Wise Google has linked location with features like BLE scanning and WiFi scanning, because theoretically, they can be used to calculate a location. That is, if you are near an access point X, then you can assume your location.



Well done, of course. But is it possible to ask more understandable questions, for example: “Do you want to enable WiFi scanning? This can reveal your location. ” This is probably not the best wording, but the current situation is really disorienting and distressing users.



These are common complaints about Android. And in the near future the situation is unlikely to be corrected.

Permission to speak freely

At the time of Nokia, applications requested permissions suddenly . There were jokes that a web browser would ask for permission to connect to the network, and then ask if you really want to connect to a secure website.



Think I'm kidding? This is a common situation on Symbian:





Android and Apple should have freed us from this hard work. With careful directory moderation and double-checked applications, there is no need to bother the user with permission requests.



Then it happened:





The developers abused their trust and started stuffing unnecessary permissions into their programs to profit from the users.



People don't want to think about it. Application directories do not want to control applications. Developers do not want to create problems for users. Regulators do not want data to be transmitted without consent. Users say they want to manage permissions, but do not really understand the implications.



What a madhouse! Maybe look for AA batteries for a regular remote ...?