On Tue, 24 Mar 2015 12:40:33 -0000, "Ophelia"
> wrote:

>
>
>"Nancy Young" > wrote in message
...
>> On 3/24/2015 8:00 AM, Ophelia wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> "Boron Elgar" > wrote
>>
>>>> OH - that Ellen app? This is what it tracks and has access to....
>>>>
>>>> In-app purchases
>>>> Identity
>>>> find accounts on the device
>>>> Photos/Media/Files
>>>> modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
>>>> read the contents of your USB storage
>>>> Camera
>>>> take pictures and videos
>>>> Microphone
>>>> record audio
>>>> Other
>>>> full network access
>>>> view network connections
>>>
>>> WOW!!! Do you use any apps or does that kind of knowledge put you off?
>>
>> Well, perhaps I'm just paranoid, but the sneaky stuff that apps
>> take it on themselves to access does put me off. I doubt the
>> apps are actually doing half the stuff the terms say they can,
>> but why do they need it? Is all that just a byproduct of being an
>> app or do they deliberately include code that accesses all those
>> functions?
>
>I think Boron might be able to tell us?

There are often two reasons why the permissions are requested - one is
to perform the function of the app, the other is to better "flesh out"
you behavioral data to sell it to the highest bidder.

Take Groupon, for example, which is a US app/company that offers up
discounts and coupons for local businesses. It sells your data for 20%
more to advertisers if it is tracking you by GPS on your phone, so the
ads can be more finely targeted. It also pulls your GPS data every 5
minutes to do so. You can go in and turn it off in some cases, Groupon
may be one of them, but it means turning off GPS on your phone
altogether, not just doing so for the app, which does not give you an
option. That GPS data suck can affect battery life in some phones,too.

Again, one could consider it a quid pro quo if what the app does for
you is really somethign you like, but it is also savvy to be aware
just what data the app is sucking up and selling. And once again I say
that this becomes a problem when the company changes its privacy
policy, gets sold to another company or just does not guard its data.

I have seen INDIVIDUAL print outs of data collection from mobile
phones from users who have opted in for some app or program. I could
plot that person's travels during the time frame by lat/long from a
GPS conversion program. I have seen the list of every web site that
person visited, ever bit of music listened to, every phone call made/
received, every photo taken, every email sent, every text MSG in and
out, every app used (includes things like ) - it goes on and on.

Boron