Talk:Versions/@comment-60.28.213.42-20120705165717/@comment-4102115-20120706040832

Not wishing to defend the original post too much, but he didn't say permission changes would be automatic - he said "Permission changes are easy to go unnoticed" - which is very true. The vast majority of people will just click update anyway, and even if they glance at the permissions required, to 99% of people that means nothing. And because the majority of "safe" programs require access to Read phone state and identity, etc, etc, etc, and to the general average person they don't know why or really what it means - apply that across a dozen permission options, and so if it doen't have an average of 1-star rating and hasn't been pulled off the Market, and with sometimes a dozen apps needing an update at a time, the vast majority of users just simplt click Accept & download.

I think it is a huge failing of the likes of Google and similarly Facebook that they do not give the user the option to install any application without accepting EVERY permission. An app might claim to need to access your SMS for some extra benefit to you, but you might not care about that benefit but want the rest of the program. You can't choose to install it but deny it access to your SMS. The only opition is to accept all risks or not install it. Hence the majority simply don't bother reviewing the permissions at all on apps with thousands of downloads.

So, sure, any app could slip through a permission change for a malicious reason, but watching out for it won't help. Any app just needs to add a real feature that needs that permission and then later on use it for a malicious purpose. AKA the Praetorians in The Net is a good example. Essentially a Trojan Horse bearing gifts. Or SkyNet in Terminator is a good example of good-intentions gone bad. Both realistic possibilities of happening course, and since Game Insight are focussing the global game on USA players, it is entirely possible that Game Insight is a KGB funded socialist entity whose sole purpose is to develop this brilliant game to get itself installed onto millions of multi-platform devices, so they can then remotely control the whole of USA and bring about the Cold War to an alternative conclusion. We have after all seen that without any notification or knowledge, without any permission changes, without even any update or change to the apk file, they can reach in remotely to our phones and modify the map1_shop.plist entry (to remove the Fountain of Fortune) - so yes, it is technically possible. But I think they're benefitting the Russian economy more by having us willingly hand over our money to them than trying to bring down the USA from within.

Interesting, but not really anything to do with Paradise Island. This type of discussion is better suited to Mobile Security type forums, etc, of which there are many, as it is a real issue.

Let's just hope if they port a BlackBerry version that President Obama doesn't instal it.