fluxquanta is very close to the full answer. Note that my credit union "app" is just a wrapper for the website which also demands full access to my contact lis

fluxquanta is very close to the full answer. Note that my credit union "app" is just a wrapper for the website which also demands full access to my contact list and GPS and camera. For marketing reasons they want to know where I am and who I hang out with and what competing stores I visit. Imagine your coordinates being determined to be the entrance of an OB/GYN office, and suddenly getting megs of push spam for your new baby. Or you appear to stand around the parking lot at the sportball field for hours every summer weekend, expect lots of push spam about charcoal, disposable grills, brats, picnic stuff. What I don't understand is from a market dominance standpoint, why would walmart of all people want that data? Maybe they think they can market the data to other companies. Everyone has to shop at walmart sooner or later, maybe that means everyone will have their app sooner or later, so they'll have lots of privacy to sell to other companies.