Your Guide to Controlling Your Permissions on Android

When you first download an application, your phone informs you of the information the application has access to. These are known as permissions. It is vital to review these permissions to ensure that an application does not have excessive access to your phone’s information — this could lead to a security breach that could ruin your device.

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How to View Permissions

If you are curious about what permissions a certain app has, here is how you can figure this out.

1. Open up the Google Play Store app.
2. Select your desired app. Find the applications “Detail” page.
3. You should now be able to scroll down and find a tab titled “Developer.” There should be an option called “Permission Details.” Select this.

This will open up the permissions that the application has access to. You may want to adjust these permissions for safety reasons. Here’s how.

How to Turn Permissions On or Off

1. Open up the Settings on your device. On most Androids, the Settings option is denoted by a cogwheel on the top right of your menu.
2. Scroll down and find the “Applications” selection. On some devices, this could be listed as “Application Manager.”
3. Touch the app that you want to change.
4. Select “Permissions.”
5. You now have access to all of the permissions available to the app. You can turn these on and off as you please.

Why Are Permissions Necessary?

As stated earlier, there are dangerous apps that could potentially hack into your phone and gain access to your information. Some apps require access to your messages, contacts, call history, and more. Thus, a malicious application could do some serious damage to your phone. If you care about your privacy, then you should definitely take the time to review an app’s listed permissions prior to downloading it.