I came across an app I considered questionable on the market the other day, and I figured I'd go over what I had installed. I perused my 90 apps, and ended up taking off one or two.
After going through what I've installed, I decided to look at some apps already on the phone. I feel kind of uncomfortable with what I discovered.
FM Radio -
PDF Viewer
I do not get this one at all. Adobe Reader on the market doesn't need it. Why does this PDF Viewer?
HTC Widgets - These can do basically anything, but here's a couple things:
Why does Facebook, Twitter, and Weather need access to these things? Coin flip? Clearly it needs to Twitter, Facebook, and SMS everyone I know whenever I flip. I wouldn't want them to miss out.
Am I the only one who's even slightly concerned by these?
After going through what I've installed, I decided to look at some apps already on the phone. I feel kind of uncomfortable with what I discovered.
FM Radio -
- read SMS or MMS
- write contact data
- full Internet access
- modify/delete SD card contents - Presumably for storing the scanned channels
- read phone state and identity
- change your audio settings - Volume, etc
- display system-level alerts, modify global system settings, prevent phone from sleeping
- read Home settings and shortcuts, write Home settings and shortcuts
PDF Viewer
- mount and unmount filesystems
I do not get this one at all. Adobe Reader on the market doesn't need it. Why does this PDF Viewer?
HTC Widgets - These can do basically anything, but here's a couple things:
- Directly call phone numbers, send SMS messages
- coarse (network-based) location, fine (GPS) location
- Google mail
Why does Facebook, Twitter, and Weather need access to these things? Coin flip? Clearly it needs to Twitter, Facebook, and SMS everyone I know whenever I flip. I wouldn't want them to miss out.
Am I the only one who's even slightly concerned by these?