Everyday Hustle, made using GarageBand for Mac.
Mynapkin
Mynapkin, made using Figure for iOS.
Lilifu
Lilifu, made using Figure for iOS.
Play Store Privacy
A set of tweets about a potential way in which apps and developers can be more explicit and accountable for the permissions and access they demand of their users when installing.
Android devs should start listing *why* their app needs the permissions it does, and that description should be binding for that version
— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) November 2, 2013
Only then can we have a system of transparency, accountability and ease of understanding privacy in apps #privacy #Android
— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) November 2, 2013
This information doesn't need to be front and center, but should be available for inspection by potential users in the Play Store app
— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) November 2, 2013
Starting as voluntary convention adopted by some influential developers, it should slowly become standardized and then required by Google
— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) November 2, 2013
Apps already use some mechanism of declaring the permissions they use (as evidenced by the prompt shown upon installation)
— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) November 2, 2013
How hard would it be to have a text field against every permission to be filled out during app submission? Just say why you need it
— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) November 2, 2013
Eventually these reasons should become legally (or store policy wise) binding, so if a security researcher finds violations, someone answers
— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) November 2, 2013
Of course, laws are not always the answer. Look at the mess that is the software copyright landscape right now. With laws come trolls
— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) November 2, 2013
And these added regulations could make it more difficult for new people to submit their apps. But there are ways around this
— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) November 2, 2013
For example, especially stringent requirements could be asked of apps that exceed a certain user base.
— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) November 2, 2013
Also, you can make it so that at least a certain number of people complain, a-la Class Action, for a review to take place
— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) November 2, 2013
Having a certain number is better than having a percentage, which might be laughable eg Facebook's policy voting system with 1/3rd turnout
— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) November 2, 2013
What I'm describing might not happen for a year or two, but it will inevitably become a necessity as app stores mature.
— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) November 2, 2013
Continue reading “Play Store Privacy”
Seventeen Hundred
My second piece made using GarageBand. The first was Nineteen Oh Three.
The Happy Man
Once upon a time there was a scientist who wished to learn about the cause of complete happiness. Somehow he got his hands on a machine which could bring back people from the future. He traced the brain signatures of a number of candidates before selecting one whose aura had the radiance similar to his findings. The machine communicated to the subject in a unique fashion: it offered them the choice of going back in time while they dreamt of things that could have been.
He narrowed it down to a subject who showed exemplary satisfaction with his life. The fact that the subject refused the chance to come back to make things right reinforced the scientist’s faith as to the appropriateness of his choice. After a lot of coaxing, he finally got him to visit his past: the scientist’s present.
