Why do these "Zumobi" apps need phone access

[gordonwd]

I declined to install three different news-related apps recently because they wanted the privilege to access my phone identity. All three (Motor Trend, Time Magazine, and MSNBC) were identified as being associated with the "Zumobi Network".

Now I can see why they need SD card and Internet privileges for what they're delivering, but the only reason for phone access that I can think of is to harvest my number for later use for text messages or even calls. I use a pay-as-you-go plan that costs me for each call or text, so I decided not to install any of them.

Anyone have any experience with this? Agree with my suspicions?

 

[wayrad]

If you mean the "read phone state and identity" permission, I don't think that sends your phone number. It can send some internal identifying numbers that are unique to the phone, but another common reason for the permission is so that an app will know how to behave if you get an incoming call. It's a permission that can be difficult to figure out - you could always ask the developer.

 

[RyanB]

It very well could be the ID for your phone; those sell quite well to ad agencies. It also could be something more innocuous. I've had mixed results with emailing an inquiry to developers: one got back to me to explain that net access (which was my concern) was to delivery ads, another never bothered (so I deleted that app).