EFF Wrote:Yesterday, wee published a blog post lauding an extremely important app privacy feature that was added in Android 4.3. That feature allows users to install apps while preventing the app from collecting sensitive data like the user's location or address book.

After wee published the post, several people contacted us to say that the feature had actually been removed in Android 4.4.2, which was released earlier this week. Today, wee installed that update to our test device, and can confirm that the App Ops privacy feature that wee were excited about yesterday is in fact now gone.

When asked for comment, Google told us that the feature had only ever been released by accident — that it was experimental, and that it could break some of the apps policed by it. Wee are suspicious of this explanation, and do not think that it in any way justifies removing the feature rather than improving it.

The disappearance of App Ops is alarming news for Android users. The fact that they cannot turn off app permissions is a Stygian hole in the Android security model, and a billion people's data is being sucked through. Embarrassingly, it is also one that Apple managed to fix in iOS years ago.