[scarface_74]

> Since the first release of the iPhone? I find that hard to believe since the release notes for iOS 6 specifically called out their fine-grained permissions improvements. There was clearly some wholesale bundling before that.

There has never been a version of iOS that forced you to accept all permissions before you could download it. I'm not even sure that would be possible. The OS wouldn't know what permissions an app needed until the first time you called a function that needed the permission.

Tightening down permissions is more along the lines of only allowing an app to have access to certain pictures instead of your entire library.

[jmholla]

> There has never been a version of iOS that forced you to accept all permissions before you could download it.

I didn't say that. I said they had access without any sort of permission mechanism. The bundling I was referring to was both the fine-grained access, and permissions that weren't gated.

> The OS wouldn't know what permissions an app needed until the first time you called a function that needed the permission.

The app can advertise to the OS which capabilities it will use and then the OS can deny the app access to anything it hasn't requested or it has but the user has not allowed.

> Tightening down permissions is more along the lines of only allowing an app to have access to certain pictures instead of your entire library.

That is not what that permissions tightening was like: https://www.cultofmac.com/173128/new-ios-6-privacy-settings-...

> The iOS6 beta brings much finer-grained controls to the privacy settings, letting you specify just what services any app will have access to.

There weren't limitations on calendar, contact, reminder and photo gallery access.

[scarface_74]

> The app can advertise to the OS which capabilities it will use and then the OS can deny the app access to anything it hasn't requested or it has but the user has not allo

Besides certain specialized entitlements, that's not how iOS apps have ever worked.

> That is not what that permissions tightening was like

We are talking about three different things.

1. With Android, you use to have to give an app all of the permissions it requested on first launch or not install it. That has never been the case on iOS.

2. Apple has put more things behind permissions as time goes on - what you are referring to.

3. Tightening permissions are like what I was referring to such as only allowing an app to have access to certain photos or contacts and adding GPS permissions to only allow an app to use GPS when the app is in the foreground.