- Read external storage
- Internet
Based on the Android 5.1 source, there are a lot of permissions in the "normal" group, which will apparently now be accepted automatically at install time:
$ curl -sL http://git.io/vklnX | grep -B2 'protectionLevel="normal"' | grep name | cut -d'"' -f2 | sort
android.permission.ACCESS_LOCATION_EXTRA_COMMANDS
android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE
android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE
android.permission.ACCESS_WIMAX_STATE
android.permission.BROADCAST_STICKY
android.permission.CHANGE_NETWORK_STATE
android.permission.EXPAND_STATUS_BAR
android.permission.FLASHLIGHT
android.permission.GET_ACCOUNTS
android.permission.GET_PACKAGE_SIZE
android.permission.GET_TASKS
android.permission.KILL_BACKGROUND_PROCESSES
android.permission.MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS
android.permission.PERSISTENT_ACTIVITY
android.permission.READ_SYNC_SETTINGS
android.permission.READ_SYNC_STATS
android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED
android.permission.REORDER_TASKS
android.permission.RESTART_PACKAGES
android.permission.SET_TIME_ZONE
android.permission.SET_WALLPAPER
android.permission.SET_WALLPAPER_HINTS
android.permission.TRANSMIT_IR
android.permission.VIBRATE
android.permission.WAKE_LOCK
android.permission.WRITE_SETTINGS
android.permission.WRITE_SYNC_SETTINGS
android.permission.WRITE_USER_DICTIONARY
Application YourTypicalMobileApplication is asking for access to the Internet
to display advertisements powered by Google AdMob.
[ D̶E̶N̶Y̶ ] [ ALLOW ]
(Do you think we would give you the option to easily cut our income?)How can the OS tell if an HTTP request is for the Internet or for Ads? It can't.
Though Google could special-case AdMob effectively owning the ad scenario for apps which don't use the internet for anything else.
But I have to use Android, because it's the most open established mobile ecosystem. Only system that supports the mobile web browser I find tolerable to use for instance (hint - it's not the default browser or Chrome). Only system that allows developers to map executable pages. Only system that allows me to customize user experience as I see fit, and not offer one size fits all. And so on.
As for Internet, they leave that out of their "improved" Play store permissions as well (and the M groupings seems like a carbon copy).
Why would they do that? On it's own "Internet" may not seem to be an important category, but I am willing to give apps many more permissions if I know that they can't phone home. For tools, the Internet permission is often the deciding factor for me.
I'm not sure if Google would go for it, but I suppose it would encourage devs to use Play services for ads and analytics, since it wouldn't need any extra internet permissions, while using an external service for either would.