If you haven’t thought recently about which Android apps have access to your device’s location, camera, microphone, or other features, now is a good time to do a privacy audit and ensure these permissions are up to date. There’s another permission type that allows apps access to system-wide resources, so while you’re at it, you should check these too.
Android’s various types of app permissions
Android devices have a dedicated privacy dashboard through which you can choose how apps access private data, like your camera, microphone, call logs, location, files, calendar, and contact list (to name a few). If you go to Settings > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Permission manager, you can see every app that has these permissions and change them if needed. For apps with location, camera, and microphone permissions, you can choose whether to allow access all the time, only when using the app, or not at all—you can also force apps to ask permission every time you open them.
But there’s another type of app permissions known as special permissions, which include the ability to modify system settings, display and draw over other apps, gather usage data, or access and modify any file or folder on your device, among others. In many cases, these are useful, or even essential for app functionality. For example, Display over other apps permits one app to display its UI over another, which may include notifications or a pop-up for an incoming call. Picture-in-picture permissions allow apps like YouTube or TikTok to continue playing while you’re using another app.
For legitimate apps, these permissions generally aren’t a problem, though not all apps need all of these system-level permissions to function, and you may not want every app to be able to access things like system settings and usage data. There are also cases where these permissions could be used maliciously, such as screen overlays designed to steal your login credentials or sensitive information collected from device and app notifications.
What do you think so far?
Audit your special permissions on Android
Android apps should request special permissions in context (meaning only when you try to use a feature that requires this type of access) and they should clearly explain why the permission is needed before redirecting you to your device’s system settings. However, if you are accustomed to granting access whenever it is requested, you may have given apps more permissions than they really need without realizing it. As always, you should be especially cautious of permissions requested by apps downloaded from outside the Google Play Store (though even apps vetted and approved by Google can be malicious).
Special permissions live in a different section of your device settings from the privacy dashboard, so even if you regularly audit your apps’ privacy settings, you may not come across these system-level permissions. Go to Settings > Apps > Special app access (this may be hidden behind a three-dot menu) and click on the permission type to see which apps have been granted access. You can then choose to disable permissions for any apps that don’t really need them.
