Gao&Blaze permissions questions

I recently downloaded Gao&Blaze. The game set 3 alarms in my phone without permission. I was shocked it could access it. So can all apps read, modify, create and delete alarms? Can’t this be used to uniquely identify us?
Thank you!

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According to the entry for the app, it asks for permission to set alarms. Did F-Droid not show that information when you installed it?

I never gave it the permission to set alarm. In fact I have never seen a dialog box requesting for alarm permission in my life as i always use the default app.
Thanks for your reply!

Some permissions are automatically granted by Android because Google doesn’t find them “dangerous enough to ask”. Apparently alarm access is one of them, I didn’t know this until I installed Gao&Blaze either.

Another one of these permissions, very sadly, is “internet access”. I personally wouldn’t mind apps having access to everything, as long as they can’t access the internet, but blocking that is not an option on normal Android (but luckily is on LineageOS).

But yes, it is quite disturbing indeed how much access apps get just from installing and how many permissions are considered “safe” by Android and how much info people can collect from it (maybe you have multiple alarm set in the morning because you have trouble getting up, or an alarm early in the morning for “cancer screening”). Given Gao&Blaze is about privacy, I’d say the fact you made this topic means they succeeded is making people more aware of what apps can do.

Now, to what we can do about it… not much. Some custom ROMs like LineageOS give you a bit more fine-tuning (like disabling internet access), but even LineageOS doesn’t allow you to choose if apps can control alarms. I think it’s mostly good to create more awareness so maybe one day Google will restrict this further.

P.S.: Another relevant app that showcases Android privacy issues is PrivacyBreacher.

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The game is literally about apps AND permissions. It gradually challenges you to either grant or deny permissions.

It’s a “meta” game showing how users behave, and how (evil) apps use psychological tricks to gain more access.

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Thanks a lot for your answer! Grapeneos also has the option to disable internet access per app basis!

What do In “Security” this game ? Gao&Blaze | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

It’s a game about showing security and privacy risks in the Android platform. So that’s probably why someone put it in the Security category. I’m personally 50-50 on if it belongs there, I can think of arguments for and against it.

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