For those who have never tried Cyanogenmod, you probably won't have come across permission management. For those who have, you will know what I'm talking about and what a powerful tool it is. This is an attempt by Google to bring permission management on an app to app basis to the masses, so you won't have to go through the whole process of flashing custom firmware to be able to decide what an app can and can't do on your phone.
What's this you talk of?
Permission manager is a very nifty tool. You will have noticed when installing an app, that the Play Store presents you with all the permissions this app will be granted. Sometimes you want to install an app but you feel the permissions it needs are too intrusive and unnecessary. Depending on how much you want the app, or how much you want to protect your own privacy, or indeed how paranoid you are (Dad, I'm looking at you!) you'll make a conscious decision whether it's worth installing the app or not. But imaging if you no longer had to do that. Permission manager is the reason why.
How does it work?
It works by allowing you to revoke a permission an app has but targets that specific permission for just that specific app. It will not affect other apps (unless they are somehow linked) and the apps other functions should work fine given that you didn't do something like revoke the permission for a camera app to access the camera! So you can stop an app being able to read your call logs if you think it shouldn't have that capability. Why should a game access your logs or see who you're messaging any longer?
Things to look out for
While this is a fantastic tool, it's worth keeping in mind the permissions you are revoking and the apps you're revoking them for. It might be the case a few days or weeks down the line that an app doesn't function as it should and it may well be the case that it doesn't have all the required permissions to function properly. If you do experience problems like these then it's definitely worth checking out what you've revoked before blaming the developers for bugs they have in their apps. Similar to me getting frustrated that an app can't go online only to find I'm the one that's blocked its internet access using a firewall.
Conclusion
This has been a long time coming for Android users, especially for those who can't or don't want to play around with the firmware of their phones. It might take a bit of getting used to but this function will no doubt increase end user privacy and to some extent ease the worries of a lot of people. My only concern is that developers remain as they are with app permissions and don't start getting lazy with the permissions they include, expecting users to remove them after installing.
Mo
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