From: mariasophia@comprehension.com   
      
   >> Can you please check how many apps (including system apps!) can read your   
   >> contacts database for this group-wide survey. Just make sure you include   
   >> system apps because most people don't realize they abound on Android.   
   >   
   > According to my phone, I have 5 of 15 apps allowed access to Contacts.   
   > These are: Contacts, FairEmail, Messages, Personal Safety, Phone.   
   >   
   > All are System apps with the exception of FairEmail according to the   
   > Muntashirakon App Manager.   
   >   
   > I can supposedly disallow permission for all of these to access Contacts   
   > with the exception of Personal Safety, where "Do not allow" is greyed   
   > out. If I try to disallow the permission for the System apps, I get a   
   > warning message: "If you deny this permission, basic features of your   
   > device may no longer function as intended". This is probably nonsense,   
   > as I've disallowed Google access, and get the same message.   
      
   Hi Jeff,   
      
   Thanks for checking as the trolls from s|b and Alan Baker & Kerr-Mudd John   
   are derailing this thread, but I realize they troll because they can't   
   contribute to the topic, where you can contribute so this is refreshing.   
      
   The main thrust of this thread is to help all of us better figure out what   
   the privacy situation is on our own devices with respect to the trust that   
   has been entrusted to us to protect our contacts from 3rd-party intrusions.   
      
   Based *only* on my output from adb dumpsys, I would question such a low   
   number given read permission is automatic for many system packages.   
      
   However...   
      
   I have a ton of wi-fi & gps utilities (like a ton of a ton!) and Google   
   required all of them to get the same permissions so that may be one reason   
   why I have an overwhelmingly huge amount of apps that can read contacts.   
      
   Note as an aside that I'm not worried though because my contacts sqlite   
   database has been empty for years, so they upload nothing to their servers.   
      
   The GUI never shows the full list (but it could be close in some cases).   
   But adb dumpsys package always does.   
      
   Q: Why the GUI shows fewer apps   
   A: Apparently it doesn't show system components that aren't apps   
      ContactsProvider   
      TelephonyProvider   
      Google Play Services modules   
      OEM frameworks   
      Backup/restore services   
      Sync adapters   
      Account managers   
   And it doesn't show apps that have the permission implicitly.   
   Also if an app declares a permission but doesn't request it at runtime   
   (because it's pre-granted), the GUI may not list it.   
      
   I'm not really sure why the numbers are so low for others though.   
   Mine are between 70 and 80 by way of stark contrast (via dumpsys).   
      
   Still, it's a great datapoint where the next question I'd ask of you and   
   anyone who has any apps with read permission to their contacts, is are you   
   surprised at the number which you found out that "could" read contacts?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)