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| source: wired.com |
Smartphones are what they are because of the applications they house. Without them, they wouldn’t be smartphones; they’d be phones.
Whether it’s an app that counts how many steps you’ve taken, an app that lets you browse your social feed, or an app to edit your pictures until they’re perfect for Instagram, mobile apps are what makes our phones smart, and what makes them so hard to put down.
But, and this is a big but, have you ever stopped to think about what your favorite apps are doing with your data?
The thing is, many of us don’t think twice about the permissions we give our mobile apps after tapping the initial “Allow” when first opening them. Based on everything we’ve been hearing on the news lately about privacy and misuses of data, this is definitely not a good idea.
Permissions and Mobile Apps
Before we get to that why it’s not a good idea to stay in the dark about permissions, let’s do a quick overview on what they actually are.
App permissions are the privileges we give them; they’re what we allow our apps to do or not do with our phones and data. For example, whether we allow an app to access our phone’s camera or microphone.
For the most part, developers stick to what’s important. They’ll only request permission for something if it’s important for the app’s function, such as allowing an image editing app to access your photos.
That being said, app permissions to avoid are those that don’t impede on the app’s function. So if it’s not important to you, such as allowing an app to send you to push notifications, feel free to disallow it.
If you experience difficulties with that app after disabling the permission, such as trying to take a photo through a messaging app after disabling Camera access, simply turn it back on.
Why and How to Manage Your App Permissions
Now that we’ve covered app permissions, it’s time to talk about why and how to manage them.
For starters, you probably spend a lot of time on your apps, whether it’s messaging your friends, checking up on emails or watching movies. In other words, the more time you spend on those apps, the more data you’re feeding them.
Keep in mind that this isn’t inherently bad, after all, your apps need some permissions to work properly. But, there’s also a lot behind the scenes with some apps you may be unaware of.
For instance, why they need access to a specific permission even though it’s not entirely clear why it’s even needed in the first place. Because of this, it’s always important to audit your apps every now and then to ensure they’re not reaching beyond their means — example, if a video streaming app wants access to your Contacts.
It comes down to the fact that you need full control over all your data, and you can only do this by actually knowing what your apps are accessing.
Seeing as how iOS and Android are two of the most popular operating systems with mobile phones, let’s cover how to manage app permissions with these two.
Managing Your iOS App Permission List
Starting with iOS, because most devices that run on it are quite similar in terms of permissions, this guide should work for all.
To begin, find your phone’s app permission setting by going to Settings and tapping on Privacy.
Instead of seeing a list of apps and tapping on each to see its permissions, here you’ll see a list of all permissions, which you can use to find a specific one to see which apps have access to it.
Once you know which permission to manage, tap on it to see a list of apps that fall under it. If you want to turn the permission off for that specific app, simply tap on the app and you’ll be presented with a couple of options.
For instance, if we’re looking at the permission to access Photos, and from there the Facebook Messenger app, you’ll land on a screen with two options: “Never” or “Read and Write” (never is no and read and write is yes).
If you instead look at the Microphone permission, you’ll see a screen with the apps with that permission, which you can turn on or off by tapping on the slider. For another permission, let’s say Apple Health, you have more options, such as tracking how many hours you sleep or steps you’ve taken.
If, on the other hand, you want to get down to the nitty-gritty and go app by app instead of permission by permission, scroll past Privacy (don’t tap on it) until you see a list of all your apps.
To see exactly what each app has access to, tap on whichever one you want to see. After tapping, you’ll see a detailed menu of what that app can or can’t do.
For example, tapping on the Amazon app will show you that you can give it access to:
● Camera
● Siri & Search
● Notifications
● Background App Refresh
● Cellular Data
Additionally, you can choose to allow biometric authentication for sign-in if your phone has that capability.
For other apps, the process is the same, so feel free to check up on whichever you want.
Managing Your Android App Permission List
Moving to Android, there’s a lot of variety when it comes to devices that use it, and today we’ll be focusing on the Google Pixel. Like iOS, the process is similar for most, so this should be fine regardless of which Android device you have.
To begin, open Settings and go to the Apps & Notifications menu. Here, tap on a specific app you want to check.
Once on that app’s menu, tap Permissions to see everything it has access to, such as Location Services, Photos, Camera and more.
If you want to turn off a specific permission, simply tap on it. Keep in mind that if the permission is vital for the app to function properly, you may have to accept a confirmation that you do indeed wish to turn that permission off.
Simple as that. Like iOS, feel free to go through all your apps to make sure they’re only accessing what you want them to access.
Final Thoughts
Compared to the past, data is worth more than ever today — it’s the currency of choice for many.
For this very reason, it’s that much more important to manage your data and ensure it’s not falling in the wrong hands.
So be it your location or your contacts list, whatever it is, you need to know exactly who has access to it and why.
Good luck!
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