[Tip] How to Change App Permissions in Android Mobile Phones to Improve Privacy

Now-a-days there is a lot of discussion going on among people about data being accessed by 3rd party apps installed in mobile phones. People are worried about the fact that some apps might be collecting and storing their data and sending them to their servers. People are confused whether mobile apps can steal their personal data such as contacts, SMS, photos, videos, emails, chat messages, etc and can send the data to their servers located in other countries for analysis.

Today in this article, I’ll try to clear all these doubts and will tell you whether a mobile app can really store and send your personal data or not and if an app can access and store your personal data, then how to protect your data and how to stop 3rd party apps from accessing your data without your permission.

After following this tutorial, you’ll be able to control all 3rd party apps installed in your mobile phone. You’ll be able to set permissions/access given for all apps and without your knowledge, no app will be able to store or send any data from your mobile phone.

A mobile app can share/store/send only that data which is accessible by the app and the type of data which is accessible by an app, is decided by the mobile phone user i.e. you. Yes, you read it right. Actually when you install a 3rd party app from Google Play Store in your Android mobile phone, it may need access to some of your data based upon the app type. For example, if you are trying to install a phone dialer app, it may require access to your contacts, telephone, microphone, etc. Similarly if you want to install screen recording/capturing app, it may require access to storage on your mobile device.

So if an app requires certain permission/access to your device data, that doesn’t mean that app is going to store/steal or send your personal data to somewhere else. The app might require the data to work properly and provide facilities. No mobile app stores or sends your personal data unless it was designed to do so.

If an app requires access to your data, it’ll show you a list of permissions which will be automatically granted to the app upon installation. For example, when you install SHAREit app, it shows following window before installation letting you know about the required permissions:

Once you tap on “Accept” button, all required permissions are granted to the app. If you don’t accept the permission request, the app will not be installed in your device.

So if you are trying to install an app and you know it doesn’t need access to your photos, media files, etc but still the app asks for permission to access your photos/media files, you can decline the permission request and don’t install the app.

BUT if you need to install an app and it’s important to install that app in your device, you can accept the permission request to install the app.

Don’t worry! After the installation, you can change permissions given to that app. There is a way to modify permissions/access given to an app even after installing it.

Now you might be wondering that you have installed so many 3rd party apps in your mobile phone and never paid any attention to the permissions given to those apps and those apps were accessing your personal data since long time.

That’s why today in this article, I’ll tell you how to change permissions/access given to 3rd party apps even if the apps have already been installed in your mobile phone.

So if you have installed apps in your device and want to control permissions or access given to those apps, following steps will help you:

1. First of all open Settings in your mobile phone. You’ll find Settings icon present in the app drawer where your installed apps and built-in apps icons are displayed.

2. After opening Settings, tap on Apps or Application Manager option.

NOTE: The option name and location might be differ in different brand mobile phones as many mobile phones come with custom UI and the manufacturer company may move the option to some other place or rename the option. In stock Android and most of the mobile phones, you’ll find the option with the name “Apps” in Settings.

3. Once you open Apps, you’ll see a long list of all installed apps in your mobile phone.

Now tap on a 3rd party app which you want to check for permissions/access issues.

4. After tapping on the app, it’ll open the app info/details page. Scroll down to bottom and tap on Permissions option.

5. This option will show you a list of all permissions granted or restricted for the app. If you want to disable some permissions/access for the app, just tap on the toggle button and set it to off.

6. Repeat the same steps for all installed 3rd party apps.

That’s it. Using these steps, you can control the permissions/access given to all 3rd party apps installed in your mobile phone.

Now if you launch an app and it requires a permission, it’ll show you a message asking for permission as shown in following screenshot:

If you want to grant permission, tap on ALLOW option otherwise you can tap on DENY option to restrict the app accessing your data.

Once you change all installed apps permissions/access, you can take rest. Now no 3rd party app will be able to store, send or steal your personal data without your permission. Now you know which apps are accessing what type of data on your mobile phone. Now you have full control over 3rd party apps installed on your mobile phone.