Re: Frozeo phone

"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2025-04-20 21:45, VanguardLH wrote:

VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
 

db <dieterhansbritz@gmail.com> wrote:
>

What would do this?

>
An app.  Look at what you've installed.  You might find a lot of them,
especially if you used them only once or twice over a long time, are no
longer needed, or there are non-adware apps to do the same thing.

 
A while ago, Google introduced a "security" feature in their Play Store
app that will remove permissions from apps (auto-reset permissions) that
have not been used in a long time.  I had to go into the Play Store app
(your profile pic icon -> Play Protect -> App Privacy -> Auto-remove Off
and go to each app to disable auto-reset.  There is no global option to
disable it for all apps.  If you install a new app, yep, you have to
revisit Play Protect's privacy settings for the new app to remove
auto-reset.
 
https://chromeunboxed.com/google-can-now-auto-disable-permissons-from-risky-android-apps/
 
If you permit Google to automatically expire permissions on apps, and
you run the app later, you'll get the same set of prompts regarding
permissions as when you installed the app, or when you first used it.
But you'll have to remember which permissions you originally allowed,
and which you did not.  Play Protect tells which permissions it removed,
so you could re-add those permissions, and then disable auto-remove for
that app.  I would prefer a global option that completely disables
auto-remove, but Google has a different opinion.

 
Same here. It is a royal pain.
 
There are apps that I do not use in months, but are supposed to alert me
if something happens. There goes Google and removes their permissions
and temporary files, so they stop working and the alerts do not arrive.
Very clever, google! :-/
 
Oh, periodically the phone alerts me that it has removed permissions
from a bunch of applications. I have to review the list one by one, and
make sure the switch to "hands off" is off. Sometimes, one app is on.
 
But some months back, they reverted all apps to "on"!

I've read user reports that said the user-disable auto-remove option got
itself removed with app updates.  That is, the user's choice to disable
auto-remove got erased on an app update, so eventually the Play Store
with its Play Protect feature would expire the app to automatically
remove permissions -- that you had to re-add.

I have the GPS Status app, but I only use it maybe twice a year. 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eclipsim.gpstoolbox.pro

Yep, Play Store's Play Protect removed its location permission, so I had
to re-add it, and remove the app from the auto-reset list.  The same has
happened for other apps, like the OBDlink and Torque apps:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=OCTech.Mobile.Applications.OBDLink
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.prowl.torque

that let me read the OBD II dongle plugged into my car to analyze error
codes, or check statuses.  I don't need the dongle plugged into the car
all the time nor the apps to constantly read the dongle.  I only need to
use it when there is an error code on which I want more information
before taking to the car shop, or I get curious about looking at the
stats.  I do not use the dongle and apps to show me a currently running
status of my car all the time.

Anytime Play Protect removes permissions is a nuisance.  I'm not the
type of user that installs dozens or hundreds of apps.  I'm selective,
and research, before installing.  Even then I have uninstalled apps that
were useful at the time, but I've never used since.  I don't need dross
filling up my phone's storage.  But I certainly don't want Google
deciding for me for some nebulous security feature when it wants to
cripple the apps that I do want on my phone.

My phone has Android 8.0.0.  I forget when Google added the auto-reset
"feature", but it was first in a later version of the Play Store than I
had, so I was safe ... for awhile.  Less than a year later, Google
updated their Play Store app, and I got nailed by their security
decision.  They don't provide a global option to disable their security
feature.  Instead you have to disable it on each app one at a time.
Assholes!