What Do Your Android Reader Apps Know About You?

Permission Requests of Popular Android eReading Apps 12.19.13When you read a book or an article on your Android device, how much power—and access to your personal data—are you giving the app? A new comparison of 17 of the most popular reader apps, compiled by Matt Bernius, answers that question, and in some cases users may be revealing much more than they think. Nearly a quarter of the apps tested required access to location information; half of them ask for “phone state and identity”, which would let them grab people’s phone numbers and IMEI numbers; and a couple can retrieve a list of other running apps.

Android apps are required to specify what sort of access to the phone they can use, but these “permissions requests” screens can be opaque, and without a chart like this one, it can be difficult to tell if there are subtle but legitimate reasons why a particular class of app needs a particular type of permission.

My eReader of choice is Moon+ Reader and according to this chart I can’t complain.

Source: EFF.org.

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