Why does Navionics need access to loads of stuff on mu phone?

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NealB

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I'm trying to drag myself into the 21st century, and thought I'd download Navionics Europe to my android phone.

Why does it need access to pretty well everything on my phone, eg

- device and app history?
- identity?
- phone?
- photos?
- media?
- files?
- camera?
- wifi connection?
- device ID?
- call information?

I've got nothing to hide, but it all seems a bit 1984 to this old bloke.

Presumably, the whole world, apart from me, is quite happy to click "I agree"?
 
I've not used Navionics but:

- device and app history? - device ID? Would guess something to d with checking licence etc. Thats not an unreasonable request for any software to be able to identify what its installed on. It may also be useful for bug reports etc.

- photos?- media? - files?- camera? Would be quite common these days with software to let you post up a picture or video of your location to share with others. Seems reasonable to post a pic of an anchorage/harbour etc.

- wifi connection? Erm - you'll be wanting map updates.

- identity?
- phone?
- call information?
Click to expand...
Dunno
 
NealB said:
Presumably, the whole world, apart from me, is quite happy to click "I agree"?
Click to expand...

I'm not, which is one of the reasons I prefer Apple stuff. I'm sure they're not perfect, but user privacy has always been important to them, whereas Android comes from Google's world of ads, tracking, and free services in exchange for your personal data.

(I don't consider there's anything inherently wrong in trading data for services if it's done knowingly, and I do for some things, but my phone is too personal for that and I'm happy to pay with cash instead)

Pete
 
Incidentally, I suspect Hanlon's razor in the case of Navionics - having installed their stuff on other platforms they don't strike me as a notably competent bunch of developers, and it could well be that they just turned on all the options because it made it easier to get their stuff working, and then forgot to scope it down again to what was actually needed.

Pete
 
prv said:
Incidentally, I suspect Hanlon's razor in the case of Navionics - having installed their stuff on other platforms they don't strike me as a notably competent bunch of developers, and it could well be that they just turned on all the options because it made it easier to get their stuff working, and then forgot to scope it down again to what was actually needed.

Pete
Click to expand...

You might be right.

However Navionics does encourage users to file photos and reviews and all sorts of guff about places.

I think it still works without half those things being allowed access rights....
 
I asked Navionics about the phone thing. Apparently there's a feature in there (actual or planned I don't recall) to allow you to click on a marina and have the application phone it. Photos? Do they have something in there to upload user content?

Device ID and all your personal info? When researching how their Sonar Charts Live stuff works I did some network monitoring and found that the first thing Navionics does on startup is to send a whole load of data to a 3rd party digital marketing company*

[EDIT]*The sort of company that gives companies demographics info on their customers
 
Last edited:
laika said:
I asked Navionics about the phone thing. Apparently there's a feature in there (actual or planned I don't recall) to allow you to click on a marina and have the application phone it. Photos? Do they have something in there to upload user content?

Device ID and all your personal info? When researching how their Sonar Charts Live stuff works I did some network monitoring and found that the first thing Navionics does on startup is to send a whole load of data to a 3rd party digital marketing company
Click to expand...

They'll be disappointed with me then as I often run Navionics in Airplane mode.

Which goes to show that the comms bits aren't needed to run the charting.
 
john_morris_uk said:
They'll be disappointed with me then as I often run Navionics in Airplane mode.

Which goes to show that the comms bits aren't needed to run the charting.
Click to expand...

I tried that a few weeks ago. It didn't show me the charts I'd paid for (just the base map) even though it had been working fine before and had always worked offshore and out of phone reception. I just tried it again in Airplane[sic] mode and it worked fine. Maybe it does licence checks every so often and I hadn't used it for a while the previous time?

The permissions thing is very annoying (I had de-installed it, then re-installed it as a backup for a trip a few weeks back) and yes it seems to eat battery even when you've apparently killed it (presumably it leaves something running or forgets to switch something off)
 
ShinyShoe said:
I've not used Navionics but:

- device and app history? - device ID? Would guess something to d with checking licence etc. Thats not an unreasonable request for any software to be able to identify what its installed on. It may also be useful for bug reports etc.

- photos?- media? - files?- camera? Would be quite common these days with software to let you post up a picture or video of your location to share with others. Seems reasonable to post a pic of an anchorage/harbour etc.

- wifi connection? Erm - you'll be wanting map updates.


Dunno
Click to expand...

My guess is that the phone and call info is for being able to call direct from the app. If you tap on a marina or point of interest that has contact information, you can tap a button to phone directly instead of having to write the numbers down
 
I noticed this year that when you ended navionic's . It still ran in background to report 'my location'. Do I really want someone tracking me where I go when I am not using it for nav?

Also I have their new sonic charts with sonar phone which repost back the depths sailed over.
As anyone knows who uses navionic's in Greece ir Turkey (no experience anywhere else) they don't mark dangerous rocks very often.... sonar updates are not much good at charting areas where is less than 2 meters! Nice plan but.........
 
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