What an app is allowed to see
Read an app permission list and take back the ones that make no sense.
Apps do not roam freely through your phone. Each one lives in its own room and must knock to leave it.
When an app asks for your location, camera, microphone, photos, or contacts, that is the knock. Your answer is stored and reused. Most people answered yes years ago, in a hurry, and never looked again.
The useful question is not whether an app is trustworthy. It is whether the permission matches the job. A weather app needs a rough location. A flashlight app has no business with your contacts. Mismatch is the signal.
You also have middle answers now. Location can be while using the app rather than always. Photos can be a few pictures you pick rather than the whole library. Middle answers are almost always the right ones.
Key points
- Apps see only what you granted, and grants last forever.
- Judge the permission against the job, not the company.
- While using the app beats always, nearly every time.
- Selected photos beats the whole library.
- Refusing rarely breaks anything you care about.
What to remember
- Most apps work exactly the same with the narrower answer.
- Refusing a permission almost never breaks an app. You can always say yes later if something stops working.
- When a phone offers selected photos rather than all photos, take the narrower choice by default.
Try this
Open Location Services on your phone, read the list top to bottom, and change every app set to Always down to While Using unless it is a navigation app you rely on.
Practice: What an app is allowed to see. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.