photo library permission - how does it work ?

[wiggum15]

Hi !
After reading this:
Windows Phone Store permissions flaw patched by Microsoft, allowed apps to access photos | Windows Phone Central

Im a bit worried, i always thought apps with this permission can only access your photo library for saving or showing a picture inside the app, maybe sending information about how many photos you have saved and maybe even about locations where they were taken. Or upload to some service through user action.
But if i understand the news correctly, every app with that permission can upload any of my photos (phone or SD card) to any server the app developer would like to !
That would be really bad for people who care about privacy...

 

[wiggum15]

Sorry but i think thats a pretty important thing.
I read again all new comments under the news but still dont know how it works.
I know there are some Dev's here, can you please explay the amount of acces an app can have on your private photos/videos ?
Thanks !

 

[foxbat121]

If you allow an app to access your photo library, there is nothing to prevent the app from doing whatever they want to do with your photos. That's why it is an important permission that needs to be declared clearly.

The key word is access. Once an app get access to your photos, there is nothing you can do to prevent the app to send it out share with your friends or enemies. There is no such thing as only showing it inside the app.

Same is true for location access, once you granted an app with location access, it can track your movements and share with who ever they see fit.

Apps in these category need to have a privacy policy published somewhere stating what they do with your private data. But this is just an honor system.

 

[wiggum15]

So we have to put all our faith into the hands of MS and hope they check the code rigorous enough to stop malicious apps from making it into the appstore ?
Wow, is it the same with the other mobil OS ?
I heard with android and iOS you can control individual permissions of apps.

Now im going to delete some apps...

 

[foxbat121]

Yes. All mobile OS are the same. Android is no exception. It just have more explicit permissions than iOS. But none that can limit whether or not an app can send your private data out. In fact Google itself routinely collect those information.