ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Marc Deslauriers <marc.deslauriers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 13-10-25 06:43 AM, Michael Zanetti wrote:
<snip>
>> In short, your use case falls into the category of 'backup software' and
>> backup software is not supported by the appstore at this time.
> 
> 
> Just to add some more unsupported use cases:
> 
> * A Music downloader

That's supported with the "music_files" policy group.

> * An alternative Camera app that allows making funny pictures like the google 
> hangout toolbox

That's supported with the "picture_files" policy group.

> * An office suite

Wouldn't an office suite store it's files in its own directory?

> * An app like the Parrot AR.Drone controller wouldn't be able to store 
> pictures taken with the drone's camera in a place where a user can ever find it 
> again.

That's supported with the "picture_files" policy group.

> I personally think this should be considered higher priority than after 14.10. 
> Also I don't really see why allowing access to arbitrary subfolders in $HOME 
> (granted by policy ofc) is more problematic than allowing access to location, 
> address book, microphone or camera.

It's not more problematic, but it currently leads to a manual review process
because allowing an app to access all the user's files is security-sensitive and
defeats being able to install and trust arbitrary applications from the store.

In the future, I hope we'll be able to remove the manual review process step by
adding appropriate content providers for those items that will prompt the user
on first access.

> 
> A policy "write_pictures" that gives write access to $HOME/Pictures doesn't 
> sound like the end of security to me.
> 

We have that already, it's called "picture_files".

Marc.