Please remove internet permission

[pizzadude]

Please remove the internet / network permission or make it optional. There is no need for network in this office suite, most likely just for telemetry / spying reasons.

[gasinvein]

Flatpak permissions are optional, actually. You can revoke network access with flatpak override com.wps.Office --unshare=network.

I don't know exactly how the app uses network, you probably should ask @cheese.

[cheese]

WPS has an online user account system and it will hint you to login/register when you start the program. I prefer to honor upstream default behavior. User can unshare network if he/she doesn't trust the program.

[gasinvein]

Is there any way to invoke this manually? WPS didn't ever hint me anything about registration.

[cheese]

Is there any way to invoke this manually? WPS didn't ever hint me anything about registration.

Click the top-left button and there is a 'sign in' link.

[gasinvein]

Ah, found it. Seems like it's specific to chinese version. I can't understand a word, but the app's interface is slightly different and the blue button opens a window which looks like a login prompt.

With LANG=en_US.UTF-8:

With LANG=zh_CN.UTF-8:

[cheese]

Yes. "登录" on the blue button means "log in".

[proletarius101]

@gasinvein As a side effect of the reject of #86, I believe it's safe to turn --share=network off by default, since the internet access is only useful for the Chinese version

[gasinvein]

@proletarius101 Are you absolutely sure there is no network-related functions in the international version? I think it's a good idea to revoke network access by default, especially since it may be the cause of #99, but I don't want to break the UX for some users either.

[proletarius101]

Are you absolutely sure there is no network-related functions in the international version?

At least you need to turn this off

Not sure if it's off by default or can we just turn it off by default. Above that, I don't see any network related service as far as I can tell (I use it heavily with internet access off).

especially since it may be the cause of #99

Probably because the GFW is effectively degrading the cross-boarder transmission.

[proletarius101]

Not sure if it's off by default or can we just turn it off by default.

No it's not. It also affects #106. @gasinvein

[proletarius101]

Since there are news coverages [1] about WPS censoring users' files with the help of Internet access, I think it's worthwhile to block its Internet permission by default to protect the users

[Lenni-builder]

@proletarius101 Are you absolutely sure there is no network-related functions in the international version? I think it's a good idea to revoke network access by default, especially since it may be the cause of #99, but I don't want to break the UX for some users either.

I think I once found some feedback page integrated into the WPS Office window which didn't load without network permissions. It seems to be some kind of Webview frame that just tries to load a website. I can try to find it again.

[bayazidbh]

Maybe we can just go the Steam Flatpak route of disabling the access by default but mentioning how to revert it if needed in the app's description?

[Lenni-builder]

Maybe we can just go the Steam Flatpak route of disabling the access by default but mentioning how to revert it if needed in the app's description?

That sounds like a good idea, since an internet connection is not required in most cases anyway and it does more bad than good in my opinion.