When I connect my android device to a PC, it has several options for the "mode" of connection. Does anyone know the reason for this? Why would anyone want file transfer to be unavailable on a USB connection? Is there anything gained by disabling file transfer? If not, then why is it not always enabled? I know there is a workaround with developer mode, but I would like to understand why this problem even exists.
1 Answer
My guess for this behavior are security and privacy concerns.
If you connect the phone to an USB port mounted somewhere where you can't control if it is connected to a charger or a PC it makes a difference if it is a PC that automatically gets full access to all you photos, videos,...
Micro PCs can be placed even in cases of charger size so considering that any USB device you connect your phone to could directly steal a large number of your private data - would you really want this?
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That makes sense and I'll take it as the answer, but in my opinion, security is a lost cause on any Android device because the OS producer is effectively a malicious party. During my internship at Google, the policy sessions on privacy focused exclusively on how to avoid getting caught when blatantly violating local and international law. In example "disaster scenarios", Google engineers had used private email content for testing and it showed up in public search results. The lesson was not to respect user privacy, but rather focused on technical advice for minimizing public leaks. Oct 2, 2022 at 17:02