Apps requesting too much permission

[jsigmo]

....... They just really don't need to access all your contacts to do 95% of the things they say they're doing.

Excellent post.

And further, if the phone, app, or OS developers were really only looking to make these apps work, they could easily write the app's code to store only the necessary "contact information" for you, and only you.

The excuse that the app needs access to all of your contacts just so it can know YOUR information is bogus and sneaky. If the app only needs to have YOUR ID info, it could simply ask for it once, and store it separately. This isn't exactly rocket science for the programmer.

I think it is obvious that everything, the OS, the apps, and even the hardware itself, is designed with an eye toward gathering data. And building things in ways to make it seem necessary for people to give the apps a lot of permissions is almost certainly considered.

All they need to do is create the perception that an app cannot function without a certain permission. Never mind that there are technical ways to achieve many of these things without handing over more than what is really required. The whole design of the system is tailored with an eye toward the data gathering aspects.

One problem is that our legislators are generally not tech-savvy. The recent hearings about the Facebook scandal demonstrated our lawmakers' extreme lack of even basic familiarity with the tech world we live in. It was hilarious and disturbing at the same time.

So our laws are made by people who don't have even a rudimentary understanding of the technology.

And the same is generally true of the public.

People just blindly accept what they don't understand to get the candy offered by the man in the windowless van.

 

[Lord Corporal]

This post has been an excellent read.

Found this by searching ' why does Samsung notes require permission for contacts to sync to cloud.'

Recently got a deal I couldnt refuse on a note 9, usually use Google Keep but because of the S pen started using Samsung Notes here and there and just tripped me out thinking why does it want access to my contacts for it to be synced via the cloud app.

Thought my search would just instantly give me some absurd, far out there reason that it needed the permissions and instead learned loads on the absurd extent of the current data collection climate.

With that said I haven't put in research beyond this post and there could be a reason like the OP's original vital signs and biometric situation.

Interesting reading the different opinions on paranoia, caring vs not caring etc. My two cents are this:

I have never really been a 'caring' person about data. This goes to say that I don't go out of my way to go through every app and absolutely make sure the permissions are up to my standards... but as permissions get requested I will go so far as to NOT grant permissions for something if it sounds illogical/not necessary for its use.

I think this is the difference. Not caring is fine. I don't care. But when not caring = litteraly just giving permissions to everything I feel that goes beyond simply not caring and can be considered to venture into carelessness.

Just because something doesn't personally affect you (heck it may never have a direct effect of any kind on your life at all) doesn't mean you shouldn't at least put in the 'fellow human'/what if/ethical input and just fully bow out of any brain processing regarding the topic.

The more people don't care and just give access for ridiculous things and confuse the attitude of not caring vs what is right , the more ridiculous **** these companies will be able to keep doing until it gets to a point where it comes full circle and becomes such a problem that you DO get effected by it, or it impacts another part of the world negatively or maybe it scares over a friend or allows for trends to be set in ridiculous ways where the app market in the future becomes a toxic cesspool you don't wanna even venture into,. Then hey apps are ruined or your experience getting them is much worse.

Better to just act in the present and not allow for ridiculous stuff as it comes no matter how minor, instead of battling against something that's more cemented retroactively in the future. Right?

 

[Paranoidaf]

Paranoia at its best... You think an app dev would open itself up to a class action law suit? Have you ever heard of anyone being taken advantage of by an app?

OMG you couldn't be less stealthy. Your data, your behaviors, your biometrics - anything and everything you do on all electronic devices has been monetized by advertising. If an app that has nothing to do with your microphone, asks for permission to access said microphone, chances are they are listening to you. Haven't you talked about some product and magically there's an ad, yet you've never searched for it once?! It's due to some app on your phone collecting all the data you gave it permission to, then they sell that data so you can be targeted with ads that are "relevant to you." There is also this crazy constitutional thing called to a right to privacy. Everyone should exercise that right more often.

 

[JnEricsonx]

Out of curiosity, what was the awesome Note 9 deal?