Hacker News Reader

What you are asking is a well-known research problem (try opening Google Scholar and type in 'Android Sandbox') and I'm afraid no real solution exists at the moment. You can mitigate the problem in many ways and if you're concerned about your privacy I would suggest using mostly open-source apps (https://f-droid.org)

View on HN

Thanks, F-droid looks interesting.

Stuff like this just baffles me:

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.metabrainz.android/

Ver 2.4(27)

read phone status and identity Allows the app to access the phone features of the device. This permission allows the app to determine the phone number and device IDs, whether a call is active, and the remote number connected by a call.

I'd run a mile from that app if I saw those perms listed on Google Play.

And something like Google Calendar being > 50MB.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com