From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch
Would you mind if I came to your home and looked through your house to get some ideas for things to write about in this column? If I find anything useful, I promise not to tell anyone where I got the information. I promise that I will keep any details about your private life secret. Of course, if I change my mind later, you won’t be able to do anything about it because you gave me permission.
If as I suspect you answered “no”, I hope you are as diligent with your Android phone. When you install an application, do you give it permission to look through your data and use it for marketing or other purposes? Over the years, there have been many Android programs that have wanted to do similar things on your phone.
Android forces apps to declare the permissions they require when they install them. You can protect your privacy, security, and cell phone bill by paying attention to Android app permissions when installing those apps. Prior to Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) all applications declared their permissions before installing. You could either accept and install, or decline and not install. The problem with this system was that many users didn’t pay attention. An application for a game could potentially harvest all of a users contact data.
In newer versions of Android, apps have to individually request each permission. Keep in mind that if you deny a permission, the application might not work as designed.
It is easy to check the permissions of an Android application. If you have already installed it on your device, go to Settings>Apps. Scroll down to the app you want to examine and tap it. Click the permissions field. If it is an application you are thinking of installing, open the Google Play Store and go to the app. Then click on the “Permission Details” tab.
Why is it important to check permissions? Simply because our phones contain so much personal information. They have our exact location, contact data, personal pictures and more. They can record everything we say and do. In short, access to your Android device is access to you.
An internet search will find millions of sites that tell you what each permission is. Probably the best place to research permissions is Google Support. There are two informative articles:
1. Review app permissions thru Android 5.9
2. Control your app permissions on Android 6.0 and up
Use common sense when you install apps. If a flashlight program asks to read contact information, it might not be the best one to install. Reputable app developers will tell you why their software needs each permission.
Thanks for reading.