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If yous've got Android, you know it shows you lot a list of permissions an app wants y'all to accept during installation — and ofttimes, information technology seems similar the app wants permission to do an awful lot of things. Pew Research must accept had the same thought, because the company looked at the 1,041,336 apps in Google Play back betwixt June and September 2014 and found 235 unlike kinds of permissions requested.

In the study, Pew said that in the year since they collected the information, Android had been upgraded twice in that time from Kitkat (4.4) to Lollipop (5.x), and then once again to Marshmallow (6.0). However, since Google's own Android Dashboard indicates that Kitkat (four.ten) is still the nigh common version accessing its app store (37.8%), with Lollipop (five.x) close behind at 35.vi% and the recently released Marshmallow (6.0) with a mere 0.3% of devices running it, the study is still relevant.

Marshmallow introduces a significant change to the way permissions are handled, Pew notes: Android 6.0 users are able to select individual permissions within an app. Simply in addition to organization-defined permissions, software developers tin can create their own permissions, although this is strongly discouraged. Thus, the total number of permissions used in the universe of Android apps fluctuates not but by operating system version, but too past whatsoever app specific permissions might exist floating out there.

Most of the 235 permissions were related to allowing accessing hardware functions. Another large category is access to personal information. At that place were 70 dissimilar permissions requesting admission to personal information. Pew found that the boilerplate number of permissions required by an app is five. Full network access is the most usually sought permission (83% of all apps). The second nigh common permission required is viewing network connections (69%). 27% of apps require permission to prevent the device from going to sleep. 24% desire to use your GPS to go your location while 21% also ask for gauge location information based on cell tower and Wi-Fi admission point location information.

If y'all'd like to see which permissions were needed by 18 of the near pop Android apps in the fall of 2014, have a expect at Pew'southward Google Play Store Apps Permissions, which shows you a list of which ones are requested by each of the apps along with how many other apps also asking information technology.

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Among the list of apps popular in the autumn of 2014, Adobe Acrobat requested the fewest permissions (4), while Facebook asked for the well-nigh (42). As of November 2015, Adobe Acrobat now asks for seven permissions while Facebook asks for 46.

You can find which permissions an app requires past visiting the app'due south folio in the Google App Store on the spider web, scrolling to the bottom of the page, and clicking on Permissions View Details.

In the year since Pew conducted its permission research, the number of apps in Google'south Android shop has increased from 1 million to 1.8 million (source: AppBrain).