[mcintyre1994]

Read data about contacts doesn't sound unreasonable for an app like Path though. Facebook uses that permission to sync contacts if you want, and I don't see any problem with that. Unfortunately, reading data means they can store it, off device, independently of the install state. That's a difficult problem to solve, but I don't think users should be expected to expect this as a result of that permission.

[WA]

Exactly. WhatsApp wants permission to practically everything possible, because it offers various features on top of these permissions. Yet it never spammed anyone so far from what I can tell.

[msantos]

They might not spam users, but they don't let you delete contacts. So in short: once they grab your contact list, it's theirs.