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Weather Widget reads my Personal Info ?????

M

MikeAusA

Newbie
In my Atrix I was going through Running Apps and noticed Weather 2.2.2 was running.

Started automatically and only used 20k, even though I had no Widget activated.

Then I checked Permissions - it can access my Messages (SMS), my Personal Info (Contacts), it can call Phone nos and send SMS, retrieve running applications !!!!

What the hell does a Weather App need to have this access ???

It's by Accuweather. Hah - worst weather app I've seen - it picks weather from a station 40km away when there are closer ones that every other weather app uses.

What sort of checks do Motorola make, before providing such a dangerous Widget in MotoBlur ?
 
Read the guide on understanding persmissions and what they mean. Don't make assumptions merely based on the names of the permissions. The "why" isn't always as straightforward as you would think given how permissions are grouped.
 
?????

The Motoblur Weather Widget can
- edit SMS or MMS, read SMS or MMS, receive SMS.
- read contact data, read owner data, write contact data, write owner data.

This is what it says at
http://androidforums.com/android-ap...ps-avoid-viruses-guide-those-new-android.html

" Try your best to understand them in terms of what the application is supposed to do for you. For example, if you download a game of checkers, and the Market warns you that it wants to be able to read your contacts, you should think twice and probably not download it. There is no sane reason a game of checkers needs to know your friend's phone numbers."

A Weather App needs to read my location - it does NOT need to read who my contacts are, unless it's going to onsell them - and does NOT need to read my SMS msgs.
 
I'd check with accuweather and/or the developer, if they are different, if you are concerned. Most likely it asked for those permissions so it can send your local weather information to your friends should you wish to share that directly from the widget screen.
 
Are these the stock weather widgets by chance? If so it is the way motoblur, sense, etc are set up, the stock apps seem to all pretty much have blanket permissions as they are part of the manufacturers framework. If the permissions were from a downloaded app I might be a little suspicious, but stock app its just the way it is. Hope that helps some.
 
Yes, it is a stock widget, but I don't see how it makes a difference - the App can still send personal info to the Developer.
 
The "developer" in this case would be the phone manufacturer / Google / your carrier. What personal information are they going to get that they already don't have? Good job watching permissions a lot of people don't . But the stock apps all filter through the same channels be it carrier or google its not malicious . So again, if it was an app from anywhere besides the phone itself,stock, I would be worried. In this case think of it this way your text message and the weather travel on the same path through the carrier, that information if they want it there it is. There is no developer gathering information the carrier itself or google may be , but again what information and what are they going to do?

Enjoy your phone , be careful with permissions but dont let paranoia ruin your experience. If an app is downloaded 500,000+ times, been around a while and is rated well chances are its ok. Even more so if it came on your phone out of the box .
 
Ya, but you buy the phone you assume that, what do they get? They find out I have a kid , love android and may occasionally look at boobs lol. They arent going to steal my identity, call my friends etc. It's par for the course with any technology you buy. Now I wouldn't let any other 3rd party app have permissions to everything. You buy a windows computer you know they can access whatever they want, android is just set up to tell you which is nice.
 
I would suggest the use of LBE Security Service. It shows all permissions and lets you check or uncheck them and if you thrust an application you can mark it as thrusted. Every time you install an app it monitors what permissions it has and warns you when an upgrade changes or adds permissions.
 
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