A holiday shopping app needs to know what you want to buy. It probably doesn’t need to know where you spend Thanksgiving dinner, who lives in your contacts, or what your camera sees when you’re not shopping.
Yet smartphones accumulate app permissions over time, often through a series of quick taps that nobody remembers making. A shopping app gets access to photos, a game requests microphone access, and a coupon app wants your location. Each request seems harmless enough when you’re trying to get something done.
