Android App Security · Permissions in Depth · Lesson 5 of 5
Challenge: Grandma's New Phone
Set up a new phone so every app gets what it needs and nothing more.
The case brief
Your grandma Rose just got a new Android 14 phone, and she's asked you to help set it up. She wants her apps to work, but she doesn't want them knowing more about her than they need to.
She's installing four apps from the Play Store:
- SkyCast, a weather app
- PrintPal, which prints photos and mails them to her
- StrollMap, which plans walking routes
- WristLink, the companion app for her new smartwatch
SkyCast opens first. It asks for her location so it can show the local forecast. Rose wants to know which choice to make, and why. She mostly checks the weather in the morning, with the app open, and she only needs to know whether it'll rain in her part of town.
Three photos
Next, Rose wants PrintPal to print three photos of her grandkids. PrintPal shows a prompt asking for access to her photos and videos, with three choices: allow all, select photos and videos, or don't allow. She has thousands of pictures, including screenshots of bank letters.
You tell her to pick only the three photos. Then you notice something in PrintPal's settings: a newer version of the app uses Android's photo picker instead of asking for access at all.
Two requests in Settings
WristLink and StrollMap each send Rose to a settings page instead of showing a normal prompt.
- WristLink asks for notification access, so her texts and reminders can buzz on her watch.
- StrollMap asks for usage access. Its screen says this helps it suggest routes.
Rose asks whether she should just switch both on, since they're from the Play Store.
Four months later
Rose loved StrollMap in the summer, then stopped using it when the weather turned cold. Four months later she opens it again for a spring walk. Before it shows a map, it asks for her location as if it were brand new. Her other settings in the app are still there.
She calls you, worried that the phone was reset or that something got into StrollMap.
Can you answer these?
- Which location choice suits SkyCast best?
- If PrintPal used the photo picker instead, how many photo permissions would it need? (Answer with a number.)
- Which request should Rose turn down?
- What's the most likely reason StrollMap is asking again?
Answer them in the app to earn 120 XP (Pro).
Answer in the app