Than the applications we download on our mobile they abuse permissionsyes, it’s a fact. We must therefore be careful when granting them: we could open the door to malicious software. And before installing a new one, it’s a good idea to take a look at the permissions list, some might abuse it.
Google has been trying to fix this problem for some time, especially in apps that ask for the full access to our gallery and other dangerous permissions we talked about above. However, the solution has not been widely accepted by developers, so Google will put pressure on them.
Google monitors access to our gallery
The main developer of Android, namely Google, has added a photo selector to the operating system some time ago. Among the new features of Android 13 we found a “Photo Picker”, which improves our privacy by allowing or denying access to the gallery.
In the most recent penultimate version, Android 14, we’ve gone even further: it now includes an option to limit access to a selection (what we are doing at the moment) photos and videos. Thus, we can choose a single image at the moment when Instagram or any other company asks us for the corresponding authorization.
Permissions differences between two social apps: Instagram and Threads. The new permission added in Android 14 only appears in a second
This important movement within the Android ecosystem protect our datawhich should not have problems in popular apps with big companies behind them, but in other minority apps that could be misused. The problem is that not all developers have taken advantage of the new option.
So, as Android Authority reports, Google has started to take more severe measures against applications that use these permissions “unnecessarily”. At the last Google I/O, which took place in May, they warned that they would prevent these applications from using permissions without control, and now they have started to enforce this policy.
Developers must submit a form to continue using these permissions, and Google will review it later to approve the request or not. Starting next year, we’ll see more apps using Android’s new photo picker for this very reason.
On an official support page, the Mountain View company explained which applications would be eligible to maintain this “broad access” to the photos and videos in our gallery:
Here are some examples of use cases that are not rare or one-off: applications that fall into the categories of social networking, communications, photo/video editor and others that may demonstrate broad access needs such as photo editors, user-generated content platforms, image search functions, QR code scanners, etc.
And what will happen if apps continue to request full gallery access without meeting Google’s requirements? Simply They will not be able to release more updates to the Play Store until they comply with the new policy. A strict, but natural measure, especially considering how few applications make good use of this permission.
By | Blog HD
Cover image | Pepu Ricca for Xataka Android
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