Application permissions govern what the application can access on the mobile device. These are a protective barrier between the developer of the application and the sensitive information stored on the user’s device.
When the user installs the application for the first time the application will ask for permission for a feature. For example, a map application will require access to GPS while an application used for messaging will require access to the contact list stored within the phone. Denying access to a feature may result in the application no longer working as intended.
Certain applications will try to utilise excessive permissions to obtain additional information about the user. The developer may not be aware that the permissions are excessive, or the developer could be malicious and trying to obtain as much information as possible. If a data breach occurred within the application, all the information would be obtained by a malicious user. Therefore, it is strongly advised to review the permission an application is utilising.
All of the permissions for an application can be enabled or disabled as the user wishes. To determine what permissions an application is utilising on an iOS device:
* Open settings
* Navigate to privacy
On an Android device, this can be achieved by:
* Open Settings
* Press Apps & Notifications
* Select the Application
* Tap Permissions
* Choose the permissions
From here, you will be able to determine, what applications have access to the camera, location services, microphone and much more. If the application is requesting additional permissions (i.e. GPS location) for an application that does not use any location services. This should be removed from the phone and replaced with an alternative application.