Pruning ‘Permissions Creep’ on Your Smartphone
Like the phrase “OK, Boomer,” the amount of things that now have a “pumpkin spice” variety, and whatever a “L.O.L. Surprise” is, something else that is literally popping up more and more these days are Permission Requests on your smartphone. You know those seemingly annoying notifications on your device that happen in rapid succession when you download and open a new app? Stuff like “Candy Farmer Deluxe” wants access to your contacts? Or “Max Racer Meal Prep Today” wants access to your microphone? Or how about “Dogs with One Floppy Ear Daily Photos” wants access to your Bluetooth.”
This is happening more often because cell phone companies are finally starting to take your privacy seriously, and want you to be aware of what permissions you are giving to apps that you willingly download. Companies request these permissions from you for a variety of reasons. Some legit, decidedly not. In fact, some are downright scummy and shouldn’t be allowed at all. On the simple, legit side of things, a weather app will ask permission to see your location. This makes sense in order to give you hyper-local weather information. I love that the app Dark Sky does this. In allowing it, I can get a notification that it is going to rain in five minutes, which allows me time to send a kid out to get the trash can from the side of the road before the downpour begins. Tremendous use-case, and I’m okay with the company having that information for what I get out of it. That, and I trust the company with that information.
Other times though, the request may seem benign, like a game asking to have access to your contacts. The app says that it is doing this so that it can tell you who else you know is playing the game. Maybe you like the idea of thoroughly embarrassing your former high school friend that had a higher GPA than you in Words with Friends, I mean, I would (if I was any good at the knock-off Scrabble clone). While this may be the stated purpose to request access to your contacts, the company is also requesting it so that they can harvest data from all of your contacts (which includes every bit of information in your contact card for that person — full name, cell phone number, home and business address, etc). This information can be used to build a better ad profile of you, or cross referenced with other databases to develop a full repository of information about you that could be exploited to harm you or your friends and family. No, not in the physical way, but perhaps in the financial or personal ways. Its shady, wrong, and you shouldn’t be giving up yours or other’s information so freely just to play a game.
Now don’t get me wrong and don’t feel bad if you’ve done this in the past. Now is the time to understand the risks, and take back control of your information and security. Thankfully, cell phone companies have actually made this pretty easy to do.
There are two approaches we can take: Surgical (available for iPhone/iPad and Android) and Scorched Earth (iPhone/iPad only — Google doesn’t appear to have a way to reset privacy across the board). Neither is the “best” approach, but I do find that taking the Scorched Earth approach was easier for me as I felt that it ensured that I didn’t miss anything. Lets check out both options:
Surgical (iPhone/iPad and Android)
Thankfully, smartphone manufacturers and the companies who make the operating system of the smartphone have started to take security and privacy seriously (granted, its still hard for me to think of an advertising company like Google taking privacy all that seriously on their Android smartphones, but you have to trust them to some degree if you’re willing to use their devices). Both Android and iOS (Apple’s iPhone/iPad operating system) have a dedicated Privacy area Settings.
In iOS, open Settings, then scroll down and select Privacy.
In Android, open Settings, then scroll down and select Privacy. Next select Permissions manager.
Once in Privacy or Permissions manager, each operating system is slightly different, but the main thrust is the same. You can click on each area (Contacts, Location, Calls, Microphone, Bluetooth, etc), and then once in there, you can see which apps you’ve given permission to for that specific part of your phone. If you have a ton of apps, this might take a moment but don’t become overwhelmed, its worth it. Don’t know why your bank needs access to your Bluetooth (its because they want to track when you walk into a branch), simply turn it off. Now what this does mean is that next time you open that app, it may request those permissions again, but this time you can simply click No and it shouldn’t bother you again.
Scorched Earth (iPhone/iPad Only)
Perhaps you’re one of those people who have never switched from Android to iPhone, or vice versa. Or maybe you’ve been iPhone for life, but have hundreds of apps. The surgical approach may not be best for you. It might be time for the full on purge. Resetting all of the permissions on your phone in one quick burst. This is the approach I recently did, mainly because I didn’t want to miss anything. I wanted to know exactly which apps I was giving permission to and why. Plus, I had tons of apps that I hadn’t opened for months, and that I may never open again, that I wanted to make sure were not missed. Here’s how to do it:
In iOS, open Settings, select General, scroll all the way down and select Reset. Finally, click Reset Location & Privacy. iOS will then ask you several times to ensure this is what you want to do.
Now keep in mind, this does have the massive annoyance factor of having to approve or disapprove every app’s permission requests again, but there is a sense of peace of mind I got knowing exactly which apps I was giving permissions to and why.
I’m not quite sure why Android doesn’t yet have this ability, but perhaps they will in the near future. If they do, I’ll update this article.
Permissions creep is a real thing. Its so easy to just click Yes on each popup that appears because you just want to use the new app you installed. “Sure sure sure, yes yes yes, just let me crush some candy!” I’ve been there. But the ability to keep your information safe, or at least be aware of how its being shared, is very easy to manage. Please take a moment and review your permissions, and rest easy knowing that your data is only where you are okay with it being — I mean, assuming someone else isn’t sharing your data from their phone...
Stay safe out there.
