Could be an oversight. I think "manage my contacts" is a default permission requested when not explicitely setting the scope in OAuth...

This is not an oversight, it's even mentioned in their privacy policy [0], although I also stopped at that point. Whenever I see a service requesting permission to even have a look at my contact list, I really wish there were a button like "No, I really don't need this social stuff because I know noone in my contact list uses your service anyway and if someone does, I really don't care".

[0] http://theoldreader.com/pages/privacy

Thanks. That rules out the Old Reader for me. I think they should make it optional: only ask for this permission if I try to use the social functionality.

That they would make such an oversight makes me even more uneasy with giving them access to my data.

At least in Google Reader one can email articles, and it auto-suggests email addresses of your contacts. So Google Reader already has access to your Google Contacts.

Perhaps The Old Reader just does the same?

I hate that too. When I get some free time, I'll create a new gmail account, import my Reader feeds to that, and sign in to theoldreader using the new gmail account. I suppose this will solve the problem, but it would be best if the good people at theoldreader fix it themselves.

They address some of the problems in their new blog post.

http://blog.theoldreader.com/post/45337829605/unexpected-day...

Indeed - I stopped short for exactly the same reason. Can't imagine why I'd want a reader app to mess with my contacts in any way.

That's where I stopped and shall not try it ever if they don't remove and no, I am not going to create a new a/c for that. I mean it's totally for spamming purposes - either to me or my contacts.

By the way, interface looks cleaner, I wish so were the intentions :-)