100% of users have legitimate reasons to block internet access for some apps.

If internet access wasn't granted by default, a lot more apps would function without it.

Many other apps wouldn't exist at all, because their only reason to exist is to spy on users.

The internet access permission should be implemented. Users of macOS are already accustomed to the local network access permission.

Even if it's not the most effective way to raise awareness, it does put pressure on developers to be explicit about the connectivity requirements with users. It would also be a great way to audit an app's local-first / offline-first claim without having to do a network packet capture.

Want telemetry? Send it through Apple and Google. Given Apple's late history and latest trends in Android development, I see them both favoring this approach.

"99% of apps would request it & not function without it"

Apple could refuse to publish them, then. Isn't that why we are forced to go through the App Store? Because Apple ensures every app there works in the best interest of the user?

Permission should be in the form of a capability, which need not end up on the built-in OS network capability. If an app insists on your car's steering wheel, you can be like "sure, kid, here's your Help Daddy Drive(TM)".

> Most apps do have a legitimate reason for accessing the internet

I just flat out think this is bullshit

This isn't effective because Little Snitch only sees the domains so apps can just serve the trackers on the same domain as essential services making blocking impossible.

The only way to prevent malicious apps from affecting your privacy is to not install them or not give them network access.

This exists already! You can see it by going to Settings > Privacy & Security and turning on the App Privacy Report at the bottom.

If I remember correctly iPhone apps used to use the devices SSL certificates so you as a user could install your own and man-in-the-middle the traffic to see what was being sent. AFAIK now the apps use certificate pinning.

Yes and it should work properly instead of making unwanted initial outbound connections (macOS firewalls are broken).

It’s not quite that detailed but iOS’s builtin “app privacy report” does give a fair amount of info, including a list of domains accessed.

Crazy. So they're explicitly selling crippled devices to most of the world.

What? Why is this Chinese market only? This is exactly what I wanted. There are Apps I simply don't want them to touch internet.

Shocked to see iPhones sold in China are less defective by design on this one point, from another comment. It has surely reduced Genius Bar visits but it’s also harmed my privacy.

It's nice to be able to toggle it (it's also possible to revoke this permission on GrapheneOS). However, it is imperfect, since apps within the same profile can still communicate through IPC, so if apps cooperate, network access can still be achieved. I would guess that Play Services is one of the larger offenders, since many apps communicate with Play Services and as far as I understand (but I may be mistaken) Play Services does work that involves internet access on behalf of other apps.

You could of course disable network access to Play Services, but at least for me that broke a bunch of apps or made them unreliable.

What AOSP ROMs need besides the network permission toggle is IPC scopes functionality, akin to storage scopes.

GrapheneOS not only has this permission, but it asks you every time you install an app.

Can confirm Graphene also has it

And you can limit which contacts you share with nosy app like WhatsApp, and give access to only specific scope of file folders. Horrifying to think all the years every app got everything it wanted and did not have to ask and couldn't be stopped (I had a rooted phone for firewall capability for a while )

See my comment upthread, it helps a bit, but does not close this hole since apps within the same profile can communicate through IPC, so other apps could provide network access on their behalf. I think the best example is probably Play Services, which provides functionality for a lot of apps and will communicate with Google, etc.

(Yes, you can disable network access to Play Services, but it sometimes breaks things and the general point of IPC as a hole still stands.)

Yeah it asks on app install if you want to grant network permissions. It's just a little checkbox. You can of course manage it afterwards in app settings or permissions manager.

They also added the sensors permission.

You don't need graphene for this, I've been able to do this on plain android for ages.

iOS lets you turn off data access (so outside of wifi) for apps as well, it's just not asked at install, which honestly makes sense given the demographics of iPhone users.

Fantastic work. I regret I can't use it, because this is exactly what I'm looking for for quite a while, but it seems to be an impossible task (I need it on android).

The attitude was never "don't give the user control", though. Until ios.