Can someone explain me...

... WHY GOOGLE PLAY SERVICES NEEDS ALL PERMISSIONS FOR WEBAUTHN(U2F)???

NEED MY CONTACTS, CALENDAR, BODY SENSORS, SMS AND SO ON! ALL FOR U2F???

I PROBABLY SHOULD BE GLAD THAT I DON'T NEED MY GOOGLE ACCOUNT FOR THAT?!?!

Using Firefox and testing WebAuthn instead of the typical dialog I get "Firefox has trouble communicating with Google Play Services" when I try to use that.

If someone knows the responsible people at google, tell them to FIX THAT SHIT.

At some point Google will require you to stick the phone in your ass so they can measure your rectal temperature before unlocking it.

@AmbientTea Aka ReCaptcha v4

At least google insured privacy indirectly with that. Finally installed XPosed and XPL (tried long ago and then my device got soft bicked).

Now, google has the permission, but no actual content.

Pretty sure it needs those permissions not for webauthn, but because it's a set of unified, higher-level APIs for authentication, reading bar codes, counting steps, communication, ... You know, kind of what word "Services" means.

Get root.
Remove Google Play services. (You could disable it, but get rid of it. Really.)
If you're tired of apps begging you for it, get XPosed and get the module "This App Will Run Without Google Play Services".

What's funny is that a lot of apps complain, but on the ton I have, only two to three really force to use it for a specific feature, which is not even crucial.

@CodeTalker As stated by the module developer, it only works for apps which require Play Services, but don't actually use it. Webauthn directly calls FIDO module from Google Play Services, it it definitely won't work.

@hitko @CodeTalker

I really considered that. Some time ago when I installed LOS on my last phone I skipped all google stuff. That was really the time when I started to detoxinate from google (fdroid, contacts and calendar syncing with nextcloud, ...).

Sadly I really needed a new phone due to several reasons. The new phone had google stuff ofc, but I systemlessly rooted it, and disabled all apps as possible (without root), removed permissions from remaining apps and was done with it.

Also no google account which was somewhat weird for some apps. Without play services, they don't ask for licenses, but with it, they do but can't ever get one because of no account connected.

I need to have google play services around for my banking apps, which won't work without them. But up until today I didn't need to give play services any permissions in order for them to work.

1/2

2/2

Also one app wasn't able to get installed manually. The app needed some kind of modules, which where missing in the apk.

The only solution was to install it directly using the play store (well kinda).

I installed and logged into the playstore on my workaccount (Island), installed the app there and then cloned it. That worked fine.

Generally the app Island is just great for phones and doesn't even need root. I used that for apps, that I didn't want to get access to my contacts and other private date. Some apps with chinese origins and/or social media live there.

@LinusCDE I see… Another proof that getting rid of Google shit can be a real hassle

@CodeTalker Well aside from Youtube sometimes and Gmail, I'm almost set. The searchengine was the first service I quit. DuckDuckGo also does a good job and has a dark theme.

When I overhaul my Accounts in my password manager, I'll probably change the E-Mails away from GMail to my completely own E-Mail. Then I'm as free as I can probably get.

@LinusCDE Know what you're talking about, I've been using DDG as well for around 3 years now

@LinusCDE What's XPL exactly?

@linuxxx XPrivacyLua. The XPosed module (App) that can take permissions away without crashing that app (it just gets placeholders).

@LinusCDE Ahh, interesting! I do use XPrivacy but not XPL.

@linuxxx Also cool. I know that from earlier. XPL seemed to be the successor though which led me to it.

@LinusCDE Also, what VPN provider do you use?

@linuxxx Wireguard. I'm my own provider.