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Once nice thing about Android is that you have to give applications permission to spy on you. Reading the useful "unique IDs" (phone number & IMEI) requires the "read phone state" permission. (That is why random apps that don't deal with your phone need that permission. And is why I don't install them unless I can see the source code.)

Anyway, I would not pay for an app that collects my personal uniquely-identifiable information and sends it to an untrusted third party. The pirates have the right idea here.



The pirates have the right idea? Seriously? If you do not agree with a piece of someone else's work, don't buy it, fine. But disagreement does not give you the right to steal it.


That only works if you can check what the other person's work is like. When the app is distributed as a binary on a locked system that can only run one app at once you have don't know whether it's phoning home or what it's sending. If it's talking over wifi you can sniff on your lan but if the data is encrypted, good luck.




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