One thing to checkout is perhaps some plugin/module you have might be adding this permission without you knowing about it. Trying using the 'Merged Manifest' i

One thing to checkout is perhaps some plugin/module you have might be adding this permission without you knowing about it. Trying using the 'Merged Manifest' in Android Studio (https://developer.android.com/build/manage-manifests#inspect_the_merged_manifest_and_find_conflicts https://developer.android.com/build/manage-manifests#inspect...) to see if you can see coming from anywhere.