Exactly. An app like Netflix couldn't get away with that; if it started breaking, people would contact Netflix support, and if the answer was "turn on the microphone", people would demand a reason why it needs to have access all the time.

I completely agree with you that we shouldn't be using applications that demand more permissions than are obviously needed, but...

...the top 10 flashlight apps in the Play store require network access, camera access, address book access, etc. I can't believe that there would be any great complaint among the majority of android users if Netflix asked for microphone access. And that's exactly why we need the ios-style permissions that google is finally bringing to android.

If you mean flashlight apps that use the flash LEDs, that explains why they need camera access. Address book is ridiculous, though.

As for people complaining: a few recent upgrades of Google applications asked for additional permissions without explanation, and the "reviews" of those got inundated with comments complaining and asking about those additional permissions until Google gave a satisfactory explanation (Chromecast support).

That's correct. I built a minimal flashlight app and camera is the only privilege it needs:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bigosaur.l...

They should only need Camera access. Or, if they're built to the new Android 6.0 APIs, they can use setTorchMode which is even better.

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/came...

Granted, they're unnecessary now because flashlight on/off is in the pulldown.

There is still the nuisance that the camera is activated for the torch mode and the autofocus hardware is audible on some phones.

That's really more the fault of the phone manufacturer than of Android, though. Most likely, the camera firmware and binary blob driver aren't distinguishing the calls.

Agreed.