Five permissions Android games do not need

[harlan4096]

You can refuse some permissions to greedy games, and they most definitely do not need these five.

By default, apps on your phone have very limited permissions. To gain access to most of your data — and potentially dangerous Android features — they need your explicit consent. Android does that for security reasons; if permissions have potential for abuse, it’s better if an app doesn’t have them by default.

Apps actually need some permissions to do their jobs. For example, AR games really do require access to the camera. But even legitimate apps often want more than they really need. Here are five permissions that bona fide games definitely don’t need, and of course malware masquerading as a game would love to have.
 

For this post, we’re using the names of permissions and their paths in the “clean” Android 10. In other versions and on devices from some vendors, they may differ slightly.

Accessibility

What it is. Accessibility comprises a set of Android features that can help enable people, in particular people with disabilities, to use the device. Apps with Accessibility rights can see everything that happens on the screen, and control everything as if they were the user: change settings, perform actions in other apps, and so on.

One example of an app that needs Accessibility permissions is a voice assistant, which uses them to execute voice commands and to read information from the phone out loud. Games do not need this feature set.

What’s the danger? An app with Accessibility access can do almost anything on the device. For example, it can perform online banking transactions, write and read e-mails and other messages, change screen settings, and more. Generally, despite the innocuous-sounding name, this is a very dangerous permission.

Where to check. Settings → Accessibility
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