Droid App Access

[The Dude Abides]

Please forgive a Droid/Smart Phone newbie, i have a question about the apps from the market. When you select the app you want and it says

"This application has access to the following:"

When it has access to personal information, network communication, storage, hardware controls, system tools etc etc does that mean that's the things you access using the app or that the app has access to those things all the time?

My main concern are the ones that read "Services that cost you money - send SMS messages and Phone calls"

Any assitance is greatly appreciated. dancedroid

 

[aminaked]

You should watch out for stuff like this. Why does your music player need to make phone calls? Stick with trusted apps. Someone please correct me if i'm wrong, but there can be garbage in the market that reads your contact info, etc. and sends it off to some hacker.

When installing the app, pay careful consideration to the privileges you are allowing.

PS: are there any apps in particular that you are concerned about?

 

[bje1982]

You should watch out for stuff like this. Why does your music player need to make phone calls? Stick with trusted apps. Someone please correct me if i'm wrong, but there can be garbage in the market that reads your contact info, etc. and sends it off to some hacker.

When installing the app, pay careful consideration to the privileges you are allowing.

PS: are there any apps in particular that you are concerned about?

You are right. Pay attention to privileges. But just so everyone knows alot of apps require location access for location based ads.. I learned that in my Droid begginning from someone on this site.

 

[icculusX]

I didn't install a few that I found fishey. I personally am not too worried about my personal data or passwords being set somewhere but I do wonder why some apps want certain access.

Like some music app wanted my GPS location, so i was like no thank you. Odd...

(side note) I love your name "The Dude Abides" hahaha epic​

 

[aminaked]

I can understand wanting location for geo-based ads, but if it is a choice between an app that needs this and an equally good app that doesn't, the choice is clear.

The only things I look for are access to sd card, contacts, and ability to make calls or send sms. There might be others, but those are the scary ones. If the app also has access to the internet, it could potentially send your data off to someone else.

I don't keep sensitive stuff on my sd card and if my contact info gets out, it's no big deal. So in the end, I'm only worried about programs stealing my passwords. I'm trusting dolphin, xscope, and AndFTP. If those programs were found to be sending passwords where they shouldn't be sent, the devs would be in big trouble. Those apps could also steal data that should be encrypted...like bank balances, so really it's not just passwords I should be worried about, but passwords and sensitive data go hand in hand.

 

[takeshi]

You should watch out for stuff like this. Why does your music player need to make phone calls?

You also need to read and understand what the various permissions mean rather than just make decisions based on the names of the permissions. It's not always immediately clear why a particular permission is needed until you dig into the details of what that permission includes.

As an example, "Phone calls" isn't just phone calls -- it also allows the app to determine the phone state and identity. There are guides out there with details if you Google.