Neither can an app without the relevant permissions.

Which of those things can the official Reddit app do currently?

If you're saying "the Reddit app will slowly change to do bad things" then say that and don't imply it already does those things.

> Which of those things can the official Reddit app do currently?

Looking at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.reddit.fro..., scroll down and click the 'View Details' under Permissions. It shows that the app can read your contacts, network connections, approximate location, contents of your USB storage plus much more which would cover all of codedokode's points adequately I think? (I'm not sure of the annoying notifications, perhaps all apps can do that..)

The list in full:

  This app has access to:
  Photos/Media/Files

    read the contents of your USB storage
    modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

  Location

    approximate location (network-based)

  Storage

    read the contents of your USB storage
    modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

  Microphone

    record audio

  Camera
    take pictures and videos

  Contacts

    find accounts on the device

  Device & app history

    read sensitive log data

  Identity

    add or remove accounts
    find accounts on the device

  Other

    receive data from Internet
    view network connections
    prevent device from sleeping
    run at startup
    read Google service configuration
    draw over other apps
    read sync settings
    full network access
    create accounts and set passwords
    use accounts on the device
    toggle sync on and off
    install shortcuts

Many (though certainly not all) of those things require explicit permission from the user (particularly the storage, location, and camera related stuff).

When all an app needs to do is connect to a website and cache a few images why does it need microphone access?

Also if it has 100s of dialogs popping up users get a fatigue. They tend to say yes to everything and that's how default Android permissions are

I don't have the app installed but I'm assuming you can record video in it to post on Reddit? If that's the case I can see why it requires access to the microphone. That's the only way I could look at justifying it.

True. But why need all permissions upfront?

Security model should be automated. Request only when needed

Can't see why it needs all permissions upfront. Apps keep nagging u until we provide all permissions.

90% of my reddit usage is posting amd reading text. 10% is photo related. So browser is better for me.

I don't need an app to have all access when I upload photos once a month

The only ones that require user interaction are contacts, location, storage, microphone, camera.

Microphone is granted along camera. Camera is needed if you want to upload photos.(I might be wrong about the microphone)

Storage is always necessary for apps that cache anything from the web.

That leaves contacts and location.

So you can disable contacts and location, but all your metadata including device and network information is read and probably transmitted. In most cases it's good enough as location information as well.

Even if the user has fine-grained control over these things, the app can just refuse to run until they're granted. I don't know if the reddit app does so, but many do.

This is why users need control over the internal API layer of their phones so they can feed spoofed data to apps.

> Even if the user has fine-grained control over these things, the app can just refuse to run until they're granted. I don't know if the reddit app does so, but many do.

Perhaps this is the case on Android, but this is explicitly forbidden by Apple:

> (iv) Access Apps must respect the user’s permission settings and not attempt to manipulate, trick, or force people to consent to unnecessary data access. For example, apps that include the ability to post photos to a social network must not also require microphone access before allowing the user to upload photos. Where possible, provide alternative solutions for users who don’t grant consent. For example, if a user declines to share Location, offer the ability to manually enter an address.

https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#dat...

Let's not kid ourselves about the safety or comprehensiveness of android permissions, or people clicking without reading.

To be clear, I'm not claiming it does those things, but are you claiming it does not? And will not or could not?

Maybe you should try iOS :-) it’s quite different here honestly. I’m not saying there aren’t holes they’ve had to patch [like recently adding a popup for Bluetooth LE permissions] but they are pretty good at closing them.

App permissions may be better than on Android, but browser choice just doesn't exist on iOS. So suggesting iOS to people who'd rather use the web page than the app seems a bit strange.

Browser choice does exist on iOS. I use Brave.

All browsers on iphones are reskinned webkits.

Brave is reskinned Chromium everywhere else, and reskinned Webkit on iOS.

People who use Brave use it for reasons other than access to a unique rendering engine. Many of those reasons apply to the iOS version as well.

Not making a case for Apple's decision here. I'd be happy if Gecko were available on iOS; there's no way I'd burn my battery like that, but competition is good.

But it's not as simple as "there's one browser on iOS" either, the rendering engine is just one part of what makes a browser unique and useful.

I don't see how the permissions requested here would be substantially different in IOS. This isn't a matter of the OS, both Android and IOS offer fine-grained controls that are accessible to the user. It's up to the application developer what they request and what they do with it.

I think people are right not to trust Tencent with this kind of access.

> both Android and IOS offer fine-grained controls that are accessible to the user.

iOS doesn't allow apps to read the user's phone number or scan local Wi-Fi access points. The only files sandboxed apps can read on iOS are ones created by the app, explicitly passed to the app, or made available by the user, which is also possible on the web.

The only thing mentioned that has the slightest bit of merit is being able to spam push notifications, and this is something that a) requires the user to grant permission, b) is easily disabled by the user if it's annoying, and c) explicitly forbidden by Apple:

> 4.5.3 Do not use Apple Services to spam, phish, or send unsolicited messages to customers, including Game Center, Push Notifications, etc. […]

> 4.5.4 Push Notifications must not be required for the app to function, and should not be used for advertising, promotions, or direct marketing purposes or to send sensitive personal or confidential information. Abuse of these services may result in revocation of your privileges.