[daedalus_j]

The problem is that I WANT to give an app access to everything. I don't want my OS to think of "photos" vs "documents". I want a filesystem, and I want apps to be able to share access to it.

Google and apple are the ones "not respecting the users" by focusing exclusively on lowest common denominator users and pushing to increase their monopoly controls.

The day Android stops letting Syncthing have access to my entire filesystem is the day Android becomes entirely useless to me.

I agree that this access is indeed exploited by Facebook and the like, but the solution simply can't be to remove the capability entirely.

[whatifitoldyou]

Problem is syncthing already lost that access. https://forum.syncthing.net/t/discontinuing-syncthing-androi... I was browsing this thread to try to find a workaround. There seems to be a fork that you either have to install through fdroid or as an apk. https://github.com/Catfriend1/syncthing-android/issues/1149#...

[Melatonic]

Seems to me there must be some middle ground here - maybe Google decides to keep this functionality around for apps that need it (and punish those who exploit it) and add some type of additional user interaction before an app can get full file system access. I know in MacOS, for example, the built in finder hides a lot of system files until you flip a switch manually to enable them. Could have something similar (with a warning).

[izacus]

This is already the case. The apps in practice abuse this and refuse to start until the user gives them all the personal data if no store enforcement exists.