Modify or delete the contents of your SD card.(That's a separate process altogether, but it still has to declare the permission up front if it's going to do any of it from your phone.) Why these permissions: Facebook Messenger is a messenger app, and it has the ability to sync up with your phone contacts. And there's more than one way to get location on a device. Why these permissions: Because Facebook Messenger, just just about every other social network, uses location for all sorts of things. Precise location (GPS and network-based).(Note that the order is different than what you'll find in that original December 2013 HuffPo FUD piece, and the subsequent reblogs.) So, let's go through them, one by one, as they're currently listed. (Though we'd argue that a company like Facebook probably couldn't get away with sneaking something through for very long, but that's not really the point of this exercise.) Let's look at Facebook messenger's permissionsĪs we said, you're kind of left to your own devices to decide whether the permissions an app is declaring are scary, or necessary. So they might well sound a little scary, even though they shouldn't be.Īnd as we're seeing in this latest round of FUD, it's real easy to get folks' knickers in a twist. They're also still not really written in English (though, again, they're better than they used to be). They're still pretty broad and don't really give any insight as to why the app you're installing might need access to those things, and it's not always obvious. If an app wants to use any part of any of those things, it must declare the permission.Īnd Android has gotten better about permissions as you see them today, simplifying the list and consolidating permissions that shouldn't seem out of the ordinary ("Of course this browser needs Internet access"), making them a little easier to read - but it still has a ways to go in the way it actually explains the permissions. Same for using telephony, network and other data connections (think phone calls, getting online and the like), SMS and MMS (text messaging), and Bluetooth use. What might an app need permission to access? Your camera, for one. If an app wants to use, say, the camera, it must declare it as a permission, otherwise it can't use the camera. You see them on the device itself any time an app is installed, whether it's from Google Play or somewhere else. In Android's case, it declares permissions before you install an app. Any time an app wants to use a feature that's considered "protected" by the system, it'll have to tell you that it wants to do so. So what are permissions? And why does my phone need access to all that stuff? Because they're keeping you safe. Permissions are integral to the Android experience. And moreover, chances are you've quickly tapped through the list of declared permissions so you could just install the damn app. Every now and then you'll come across an app that doesn't have to declare any special permissions, but that's generally the exception and not the rule. If you've ever installed an Android app, chances are you've seen its list of declared permissions. But we also need to remember to think about why an app may be declaring the permissions it is. That's not to say you shouldn't look at an app's permissions before installing it - you absolutely should. They're irresponsible, show a distinct lack of knowledge on the way Android permissions work, and frankly they do very little to educate. They're spreading what we call Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Here's the thing, though: These scary stories aren't telling you the whole truth. And this week folks have been blindly reblogging this scary story within an inch of its life, presumably in hopes of keeping scary things from happening and saving the world or something. I'm willing to bet that few, if any, of those who downloaded this app read the full Terms of Service before accepting them and downloading the app. How much access to your (and your friends') personal data are you prepared to share for access to free mobile apps? I suspect the amount is significantly less than that which you actually agreed to share when blindly accepting the Terms of Service.Case in point: Facebook's Messenger App, which boasts over 1,000,000,000 downloads, requires the acceptance of an alarming amount of personal data and, even more startling, direct control over your mobile device.
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