Yalpstore: Feature: Use your own account for paid apps only.

[micressor]

Expected behavior

It would be nice if it is possible to switch between Yalp's own and the standard account.
For example, Yalp uses its own account to check paid apps for updates. Yalp uses the default account for all free apps. That would be a better privacy.

[nagayev]

@micressor
I think it isn't possible

[rugk]

@marat1995 Why should not it? Technically it is sure possible – the API requests would just have to use two different accounts ~, although Google could, of course, easily correlate these two accounts (via IP), especially when updates are checked. Nevertheless, I'd support this feature.

[micressor]

Another example: if Paid Apps are on two different Google Accounts.

[rugk]

Hmm, that could easily get more difficult here…

[yeriomin]

@marat1995 @micressor @rugk It is possible, but...

• It is going to require a huge rewrite.
• Most Yalp users (and most Play users) don't buy anything. People who have two accounts are going to be even more rare.
• That would be a better privacy. Half-privacy does not exist. If you have bought apps, you have given Google a lot of info and hiding free app downloads from them is useless.

[micressor]

From my point of view, only the change from the standard account to an optional account could be supported.

Of course, a simple workaround would be to login / logoff from time to time to get an update from a paid app.

[nagayev]

@micressor +1

[yeriomin]

There are many reasons not to do it (see my post above), and only one reason to do it: save time on logging out-in. So I am closing this. Sorry.

[generalmanager]

I was actually about to open a feature request precisely about this when I found this one. My reasoning is the same: that it makes a big difference how much about ones usage habits and attack surface (as every app has real or potential vulns and/or can be used for further recon as is the case with social networks etc.) is revealed.
And if the setting for automated update check intervals were also dependent on the account used, even less information could be retrieved & correlation can't be used to connect the requests for updates of paid and free apps.

@yeriomin It's not just about saving time for switching between the accounts. Currently automated update checks are possible, but only for one account. So in the two account scenario it can take weeks until one gets updates, as it's very difficult to make checking manually for those a regular habit . This may not be too important if it's just new icons or other UI redesigns, but in case of fixes which improve privacy or security, it can be pretty damaging. I'm thinking of stuff like the repeated cases where researchers found severe flaws in several banking apps. There was recently a report in Europe which made severe flaws in ~30 or more banking apps public.
After such info becomes public, it's often just a matter of days until exploits are seen in the wild, so frequent updates are paramount to having a secure device.