That's an aspiration. It's not what Android does these days. Mobile OS permissions (at least Android) have become pretty weaselly. Protecting you from malware b

That's an aspiration. It's not what Android does these days. Mobile OS permissions (at least Android) have become pretty weaselly. Protecting you from malware blatantly asking for root is obviously very important. Sandboxing is important. But the sneakier use of permissions for privacy exploits and data harvesting is different and more subtle. GasBuddy ("GasBuddy Is a Privacy Nightmare")[0] is a case in point. Geolocating users and selling that to everyone. Harvesting users' driving habits then selling those to Allstate subsidiary Arity ("turning mobility and driver data into meaningful behavioral insights, leveraging telematics to make transportation smarter, safer, and more useful for everyone!"). (But there's an opt-out!) So are fitness apps and trackers. Private equity loves acquiring them. Permissions can be abused in ways that aren't made obvious to users. Obvious example: just because you disable "location access", doesn't mean the app can't (indirectly) geolocate you in a variety of sneaky ways. Even if the app doesn't intentionally crash if you disable its location access: indirectly geolocating users indirectly from IP addresses or metadata on photos they upload. Device fingerprinting from motion sensors, so that you can track a unique user across networks and devices, and develop "behavioral insights". And on and on. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30636730 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30636730