[scarface_74]

I have never had an iOS app that won’t work if you don’t give it your location, contact list data, etc except for obvious things like Maps.

[gruez]

McDonald's app won't give you offers if you refuse to give precise location permission. That said other functionality works fine.

[ToucanLoucan]

I've honestly never had an app that didn't have a VERY good reason to need contacts access actually request it.

[BobaFloutist]

WhatsApp insisted on important contacts instead of letting me add them manually.

[wafflemaker]

What's up doesn't start if you don't give it full contact list on Android.

[scarface_74]

It works fine on iOS if you say “no”

[BobaFloutist]

That's the impression I got, though I had a haunting suspicion that there was some other way I wasn't able to find.

It's disgusting.

[consteval]

Pretty much all social media apps request contacts and will auto-recommend your profile(s) to your contacts. Kind of a shitty feature if you want a somewhat private social media profile. I mean, not all social media is Facebook, can we please stop treating it as such?

[scarface_74]

And you can say “no” and the app still works

[consteval]

Okay. And? I guess I don't have a right to complain because I can just ignore the app's pestering.

With this kind of mentality, you can justify close to anything. I don't think this is sound reasoning.

[scarface_74]

Do you feel the same way about the GDPR imposed cookie banners?

[consteval]

They're not actually imposed in the way we're seeing them. I have a big issue with low-quality software and most companies make very low-quality software.

99% of the time I see the cookie-banner, I will say "well for this type of website this isn't necessary". Either they're collecting suspicious, unnecessary data or they misunderstood the law. Either way it's not a good look for them.

Eventually it reaches an inflection point where it's so prevalent all I can do is complain, not avoid.

[ToucanLoucan]

I mean, in order:

- If I install an app, and if it were to request permissions I don't feel it needs, I decline them

- If it asks again later and provides a justification, I may approve it, if I feel the functionality is worth it. But I may not.

- If I don't and it continues to pester me, I delete the thing and move on.

Frankly I could count on a couple of hands the number of apps that have access to my contacts, and all of them need that access in order to function.