Google, in its Android 4.4.2 release a week ago, removed an undocumented, experimental privacy control panel that had been released inadvertently in July as part Android 4.3.
The control panel, called App Ops, allowed Android users to deny the availability of selected permissions in an app. Though it was not accessible to users without some technical knowledge, it was immediately noticed and made available through Android apps that provided shortcuts to the hidden interface.
App Ops turns Android's permission model on its head. Instead of allowing the developer to present a list of requested (and generally necessary) permissions to the user for all-or-nothing approval, the control panel allowed users to disable certain permissions while leaving others in place.
In a blog post Wednesday, Peter Eckersley, technical projects director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, praised App Ops Launcher, a third-party shortcut app to App Ops, as "a huge advance in Android privacy." He lauded the Android engineers for "giving users more control of the data that others can snatch from their pockets."
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