Mobile apps are notorious for asking permissions they don’t have a business requirement. You may have noticed that some of your Android apps are asking for too many permissions and completely unrelated to the app’s actual utility — for example, if the flashlight app requests access to your camera, microphone, or location. When an app requests permissions beyond what it needs to function, it’s often the company behind the app that can collect as much data as possible and sell it to third parties like advertisers and data brokers.
These can be especially intrusive if the application is not explicitly asked to run. Apps can collect large amounts of extremely sensitive personal information from these permissions, and if this data is mishandled or leaked, it can pose a significant risk to your privacy. This is why managing app permissions on Android devices is important.
Fortunately, changing app permissions is easy on your Android device—you can choose whether to manage permissions by app or by permission type.Note that the steps listed below apply to devices running Android 11 and higher. Here’s how to manage app permissions on your Android device. Let’s take a look below!
How to manage Android app permissions by app
If you’re concerned about granting permissions to an app on your Android device, you can manage permissions by app. Proceed as follows:
- Click Settings.
- Tap Apps.
- Scroll down and tap the app in question (or you can search for apps by tapping the magnifying glass icon).
- Click Permissions.
- Tap Permissions to allow or not allow.
You can also access the permissions menu from any app by tapping and holding the app icon on your phone’s screen. Tap the info icon in the upper-right corner of the popup to access the app info menu, then tap permissions from there. In the app info menu, you can also enable the “Remove permissions if the app isn’t used” feature, which will remove the app’s permissions if you haven’t used the app for three months.
How to manage Android app permissions by permission type
If you want to see which apps you deny or allow access to specific permissions (such as your microphone or location), you can manage your app permissions by permission type. Proceed as follows:
- Click Settings.
- Click Privacy.
- Click Permission Manager.
- Tap a permission type to see which apps allow the selected permission.
- Tap on an app and choose Allow or Not Allow.
How to centrally manage camera and microphone access for all apps
You can even generally deny all apps access to your camera and/or microphone with a toggle if you want to take a hard line with those two permissions. Here’s how you can toggle camera and microphone permissions in all apps on your Android device:
- Click Settings.
- Click Privacy.
- Turn camera access and microphone access on or off.
Going this route can be a good way to make sure no apps can access your camera or microphone. However, keep in mind that if you set these permissions to the “off” position, video communication applications that rely on camera and microphone operation will not work properly.
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