Application Permissions

In this episode, Alex and Ethan finally turn to the big issues of modern technology debate - data regulation. In particular, they focus on an often ignored subset of data collection: the permissions settings on your phone or tablet that many of us simply accept and move on. Every app provides a function to its user, and allowing apps to use the different services on your phone is vital for the range of incredible applications we now have access to, with our lives immeasurably improved by the existence of such functions. When we think of applications, we primarily think of their benefits. In particular, limitations on a application permissions is often framed in terms of what we are giving up - if we remove location services, then we lose Uber forever. However, as beneficial as giving permission to apps to use the full suite of phone services is, we need to at least spend some time considering what it is exactly that we are giving up, and most importantly, what other options are there? Is the current permission paradigm all we have? Alex and Ethan explore all these questions and more, diving into the intersection of applications, phone services, terms of service, and data regulation.

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