Why would Pandora need access to my personal info, contact data, phone state and iden

billyman · #1 (**permalink**) 08-26-2010, 04:17 PM

I went to d/l Pandora from the market today and as usual the permission request popped up. I wasn't surprised to see internet in there, but it was requesting permission for access to my personal info, contact data, phone state and identification. I hate that so many android apps (feel like to me) are so intrusive. One aspect of WM that I really miss.

Does anyone know why it would need access to this information?
Am I being overly paranoid?

**gator352** · #2 (**permalink**) 08-26-2010, 05:15 PM

Because you have to create a basic pandora account to use it, just like signing up to join these forums and etc. It's only accessing the info you entered to start up the account for personal preferrences you make while using Pandora.

But yeah, your being paranoid but rightfully so. Don't worry to much unless they start asking for SS#'s, place of employment, and etc.

billyman · #3 (**permalink**) 08-26-2010, 07:11 PM

Thanks gator, but I already have a Pandora account. I can understand it wanting (needing) access to the internet, but I think it's unnecessary to want or need access to my contacts or personal information. It never needed it on my TP and it ran just fine.

I wish there was a way to install the app, but grant it only certain privledges. Or is there that option???

**mlin** · #4 (**permalink**) 08-26-2010, 07:33 PM

Perhaps on your TP it just never notified you that it was gaining access to those things...

coppertop24 · #5 (**permalink**) 08-26-2010, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billyman

Thanks gator, but I already have a Pandora account. I can understand it wanting (needing) access to the internet, but I think it's unnecessary to want or need access to my contacts or personal information. It never needed it on my TP and it ran just fine.

I wish there was a way to install the app, but grant it only certain privledges. Or is there that option???

Ive never used pandora so i dont know, but does it allow you to send recommendations to friends or share stuff? That might explain why it needs access to your contact data. Reading the phone state, its obvious since we cant stream data and voice at the same time. As far as winmo not needing access to your data, its either because winmo apps were never integrated the way android apps are, or...it did access the information and just never told you about it. Thats what I do like about android. It gives you an idea of what these applications are doing on your phone as opposed to just doing stuff in the background without your knowledge. The only thing is that now that they ae warning us before they install everyone thinks this kind os data access is something new and malicious. Its been happening on phones a lot longer than you know. You were just never privy to the fact before now. Someone correct me if im wrong, or just talking out my butt.

**brownhornet** · #6 (**permalink**) 08-26-2010, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlin

Perhaps on your TP it just never notified you that it was gaining access to those things...

exactly... and on top of that the winmo version had to be modified to work on winmo to begin with. I remember those days.

abrigham · #7 (**permalink**) 08-27-2010, 01:55 AM

So, as far as why Pandora wants to access all those things:
Contacts - Pandora allows you to share your stations with your contacts

Phone state - It has to be able to check and see if a call is coming in or active to know that it needs to pause the audio.

Personal Info - As was mentioned already, if you were to sign up for an account through the app you are giving your personal info. Also, when you log in you are giving some personal info. Lastly, the app gives you the ability to purchase tracks that you like, so again you will be giving personal info to purchase...

Something to keep in mind - when you get the permissions warnings when installing an app, that is a list of things that the app MAY do, based on the parts of the SDK that are used to build the program. It's like all of the 3rd party keyboards saying it may store passwords or other personal info.

And as far as WinMo apps not being as "intrusive"... WinMo just doesn't warn you like Android does... I guarantee there's WinMo apps that are just as, if not more, intrusive than their Android equivalents...