Draw The Line

How to limit apps from exploiting your personal data.

- Nidhi Singal

Privacy in the time of data breaches seems illusory. A look at the Archive file in your Facebook account will certainly have you believe so. It has your complete contact list, call history, message history and more. Shockingly, this is not done against your consent. The list of permissions granted to the Facebook app (when you download it on an Android smartphone) includes access to almost everything – calendar, camera, contacts, location, microphone, phone, SMS and storage. And this is just Facebook. Most other apps on our phones ask for similar permissions.

In the rush to get that latest ‘recommended’ app on our phone, we tend to overlook privacy concerns. Apps by default seek access to hardware as well as our data; most times, not within reason. It is understandable that a navigation app like Google Maps requires your Current location to work effectively, but why should a flashlight app need access to your storage, location, micro hone and contacts?