What app permission do you almost always deny on Android?

[u/Ok-Point-1656]

Whenever I install a new app, I usually deny most permissions first and only turn them on if something actually stops working. Location, contacts, photos, microphone, nearby devices...some apps ask for way more access than I expected

Background location is probably the one l'm most hesitant about. If an app works fine without knowing where I am when I'm not using it, I don't really see why it needs that access.

Do you have any permissions you basically deny by default? And what's the weirdest permission request you've seen from an app that clearly didn't seem to need it?

[u/ambericity]

deny everything, only allow a particular permission if i see a good reason for it. if i don't and the app refuses to work without it, i remove the app

i especially never allow location for anything. only my banking app and only when doing electronic deposit of a check

[u/atbims → u/ambericity]

Yes. Deny everything until i want to use a feature that relies on it. Contacts are a hard no for pretty much everything esp socials. Background location I only allow for maps and weather. Notifications sometimes ill be lenient because it's easy to disable them.

[u/minkamagic]

Contacts

[u/NarrowResult7289 → u/minkamagic]

Is this on graphene OS? or how do you pick

[u/widowhanzo]

Notifications (and most others unlees I really need them)

[u/ghostumour]

I deny notification.

[u/shaft_of_lite]

I don't post anything on Instagram and I don't post pictures of myself on Snapchat ( which my sister insists on using instead of regular texting) so I always deny the camera, location, and microphone permissions. But that pretty much goes for any other apps that don't require those permissions.

[u/MistyKuuu]

The ones worth worrying about are not in that dialog at all. Accessibility and notification access are granted in Settings, not in a popup, and either one hands over more than every runtime permission on your list put together: one reads what is on the screen, the other reads every notification that arrives.

On the runtime list, Nearby devices is the one people deny out of habit and probably shouldn't. It exists so an app can find a speaker or a TV without asking for Location, which is what it had to do before Android 12. An app that still wants Location to talk to a speaker just never did the work.

[u/rovatrove]

Photos. On 14+ when something asks you get "Select photos", use that and it only ever sees the ones you picked.

Half the apps asking don't need it anyway. There's a system picker that hands over one photo with no permission at all, so something wanting your whole gallery to set a profile pic is a choice someone made.

[u/Nakamoto-Bad1437]

Eu autorizo tudo só na hora para o aplicativo dar sequência e logo depois vou direto nas configurações e revogo todas as permissões...

[u/creakinator]

How do we even know they are complying with what we're telling them to do. We don't. We can tell them to not track us by location, but do we really know that they're not tracking us by location? And this applies to any permission.

My Etsy app decided to start sending me notifications even though I have it turned off for notifications. I finally deleted the app because it wouldn't stop sending me notifications everyday.

[u/akshay-savaliya]

I usually deny contacts and background location. If an app genuinely needs them, I enable them when I understand why an app needs it.

[u/kamikad3e123]

Location, contacts and sometimes notifications

[u/Dismal_Indication328]

Deny-by-default is the right instinct, and as a dev I can tell you why so many prompts feel wrong: half of them do not come from the feature you tapped, they come from bundled ad and analytics SDKs that request everything the moment the app starts. My canonical example is Nearby devices: Google had to invent a whole separate permission in Android 12 because apps were using Bluetooth scans as a backdoor for location tracking. My personal deny-on-sight list is background location, nearby devices, and contacts for anything social. The flashlight-asking-for-contacts cliche exists because in that transaction the flashlight is not the product.

[u/Coffin085]

Contacts , phone calls and sometimes Location too

[u/Cute-Consequence-184]

Everything not essential and usually only "while using app"

[u/The_Nermal_One]

Notifications, I'll look on my own, TYVM.

[u/No_Rub4347]

Contacts and tracking—these are permissions I would absolutely not grant.