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K
Kevin_Sherrill
Known Participant
January 14, 2014
Question

Why the new Android permissions requirements for AIR 4.0.0.139?

  • January 14, 2014
  • 1 reply
  • 1090 views

When starting to update my AIR app to 4.0.0.139 on my Android devices through the Google Play store I found a number of new permission requirements.

They are:

New: Approximate location

New: Receive data from Internet

New: Prevent tablet from sleeping

New: Find accounts on the device

So does this mean that flash apps not using a captive runtime will no longer have to directly request these permissions from the user because the AIR libraries have already acquired them? This could be misleading to the user who installs an AIR app that will have far greater permissions that what they thought they were approving.

My big question is why are these permission needed? As a developer I submit the Android permissions I need for my app into the application descriptor file. So why does AIR itself need all these extra permissions?

As a consumer i've started finding too many apps that want access to run at startup, know my location, or contacts, or accounts, with no apparent reason for it. I've been uninstalling such apps or refusing to update them further. Does Adobe worry that other consumers may follow suit? Does the AIR libraries really need these permissions? Why?

Thanks in advance.

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

K
Kevin_SherrillAuthor
Known Participant
February 11, 2014

It's been almost a month since my original post and no response from anyone at Adobe?

So I have another question. Isn't this separately install Android library essentially already dead? If all apps using > AIR 3.5 now require captive runtime, then users don't need this for newer apps, right?

Or is there a plan to drop the forcing of captive runtime on developers and allow them to go back to creating smaller apps?

Just so you know, I'm currently developing AIR apps for Android and packaging them with AIR 3.5. I think my boss likes the flexibility of knowing we don't have to use captive runtime unless we are rolling out to Amazon or a foreign market where the users don't have access to Google Play.

So until such time as we need some of the newer stuff like Mobile Workers or better iOS support I don't see us packaging with the newer AIR libraries unless someone at Adobe wants to start talking/blogging about the direction AIR is going, if forcing captive runtime is going to stop, and why these new permissions are needed for Android.

S
suckitadobe
Participant
April 16, 2014

This is typical of Adobe and how they have always been. They do whatever they want with absolutely no respect or consideration for the user. Not only did they add several new permissions, but they don't have any way to contact them about Air. The email listed on the Google Play page isn't valid, there's no contact info listed on the website, and if you try to submit a question to them Air isn't even an available option. It just goes to show how little they care about the users of their products. And then when someone like yourself goes to the trouble of asking them about it the only way possible, they ignore the question. Which says they don't care, they're hiding something, or both. In any case, I've always hated Adobe and steered clear of their products as much as possible because of this behavior, and I will continue to do so. I won't be letting this app have all these permissions without so much as an explanation why, so I'll be uninstalling it and just won't use any apps that require it, which to my understanding is mostly games, so I'll live. I just hope their disdainful attitude toward their users catches up to them and they crash and burn. We're on the right track with HTML5 moving away from Flash.

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