Mobile apps are notorious for asking for permissions they don’t ask for. Some android apps may ask for permissions that are excessive and completely unrelated to the intended utility, for example if a flashlight app requests access to your camera, microphone, or location. Apps that request excessive permissions usually do so to maximize your details and resell it to third parties such as advertisers and data brokers.
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App permissions that may be excessive or invade your privacy include access to your location, camera, microphone, contacts, browsing history, and photo library. An app can collect a lot of sensitive personal information from such permissions, which can be dangerous in the wrong hands. That’s why it’s important to manage app permissions on your Android devices.
It’s a good idea to keep app permissions to a minimum. Only grant your apps access to what they need on your device to provide the functionality you need from them. For example, a weather or navigation app obviously needs access to your location to function properly, but generally doesn’t need access to your camera or your contacts. And in some cases, you may not even need to give them location information if you can manually enter your zip code or city.
Fortunately, it’s easy to change app permissions on your Android device – and you can choose whether you want to manage permissions by app or by permission type. To manage app permissions on your Android device, do the following:
Please note that the steps below apply to devices running Android 11 and above.
How To Manage Android App Permissions Per App
If you’re concerned about the permissions granted to a particular app on your Android device, you can manage the permissions on a per-app basis. Here’s what to do:
1. Tap Settings
2. Tap apps
3. Scroll down and tap the appropriate app (or you can search for the app by tapping the magnifying glass icon)
4. Tap rights
5. Tap a permission to allow or disallow
You can also access the rights menu from any app by tapping and holding the app icon on your phone’s screen. Press Info icon in the top right corner of the window that appears to access the App information menu and tap rights from there.
Of the App information menu, you can also select the Remove permissions when the app is not in use feature, which removes the permissions to the app if you haven’t used it for three months.
How To Manage Android App Permissions By Permission Type
To see which apps have denied or allowed you access to a particular permission, such as your microphone or location, you can manage your app permissions by permission type. Here’s how:
1. Tap Settings
2. Tap Privacy
3. Tap Consent Manager
4. Tap the permission type to see which apps allow the selected permission
5. Tap an app and select Allow or not allowed
How to universally manage camera and microphone access for all apps
You can even universally deny all apps access to your camera and/or microphone with a single toggle switch if you want to take a hard line with those two permissions. Here’s how to toggle camera and microphone permissions for all apps on your Android device:
1. Tap Settings
2. Tap Privacy
3. Switch Camera access and Microphone access on or off
Going this route can be a great way to ensure no app can access your camera or microphone. However, keep in mind that video communication apps like Zoom or Skype, which rely on your camera and microphone to work, won’t work properly if you have these permissions set to the “off” position.
For more advice, see five tips to make your android phone feel like new againhow clear your Android device’s cookies and cache and remove excess junk files and how? disinfect and remove fingerprints from your dirty phone screen†