This study from Cybernews found that "the percentage of apps that needlessly ask for unrestricted access to our whereabouts, device usage, and communications is highly alarming, if not objectionable." Whether online privacy is a priority for you or not, I recommend learning about what permissions your apps have, because they might know a lot more about you (and be selling it to the highest bidder) than you care to share.

 

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In theory, Android app permissions are a great way to ensure our safety and protect our privacy. In practice, however, these permissions aren’t always shown prominently or described in much detail, and we may be completely unaware of the fact that we just gave a beauty camera app our full blessings to record audio, track our location, or go through our contacts list. In fact, some apps harvest our data even when we deny them access to personal information. And the situation seems to only be getting worse with each passing year.

 

With that in mind, we at CyberNews wanted to see if requests for dangerous permissions in Android apps are really getting out of control. To do this, we examined the top 1020 apps on the Google Play store and analyzed the permissions they were asking for.

What we found was rather alarming: requests for dangerous permissions were incredibly common among the top Android apps. Not only that, permissions that are particularly invasive, such as access to your camera, location, and microphone were frequently requested by apps in categories that should have no business asking for them. 

 

In principle, app permissions are supposed to prevent others from violating your privacy by letting you control what data you give up. Sadly, when every other app wants to track your location or read you call logs, it seems that the principle might no longer hold true.

 

https://cybernews.com/privacy/android-apps-are-asking-for-too-many-dangerous-permissions-heres-how-we-know/   (or google the title, "Android apps are asking for too many dangerous permissions. Here’s how we know.")

In principle that is correct. But if people want that an app works what do they do? Click yes.

 

Unfortunately it is almost impossible to use any internet connected device today and don't give away lots of information. Do I like it? No. Could I do something against it? In part, with lots of effort. At least my summary is: forget it, accept it, that is "modern" life.

23 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

In principle that is correct. But if people want that an app works what do they do? Click yes.

 

Unfortunately it is almost impossible to use any internet connected device today and don't give away lots of information. Do I like it? No. Could I do something against it? In part, with lots of effort. At least my summary is: forget it, accept it, that is "modern" life.

True. That's the price of being the product, I guess.

This is why I went back to an iPhone.

 

When you BUY an app is it less invasive?