Stores have access to list of installed apps

avidgrapher

Do store apps like Aurora store or F-droid have access to the list of installed apps on device?

How do they know which apps are installed? E.g: they list available updates. I can't see a specific permission given to them for this.

[deleted]

avidgrapher Do store apps like Aurora store or F-droid have access to the list of installed apps on device?

Any application can get a list of all packages on a device, If It has the QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES permission declared in its manifest.

dgzeij

[deleted] Is there a way to block this?

[deleted]

dgzeij No.

dgzeij

[deleted] Onto the wishlist it goes.

treequell

You should assume that any app you install can work which other apps are installed in the same user profile. Even if the app doesn't query all packages, there are other ways they can figure out.

The only way to limit that is by separating apps in different user profiles.

brokenmirror

This seems so unnecessary and a privacy violation. It would be amazing to have something like "application scopes" akin to storage scopes.

iOS does not even have an API for such information.

dgzeij

brokenmirror The need for multiple user profiles would be massively reduced if we had application scopes. And tbh, user profiles as they function right now are a pain in the ass to set up, manage and use. The only reason it gets used is it's the only real option right now.

avidgrapher

Since Google Play is shipped patched by GOS team, it should be limited to query its own installed packages not all system packages.