The Story So far!

Recently I found an application that one of the permissions is “Retrieve Running Programs“.   I thought this was something of a hoax or even a little strange.   So I wondered what are those Android App Permissions anyways and why would they require this.  I found this great information on a forum website. 

Retrieve running applications
Hardware controls
URI: android.permission.GET_TASKS
Risk: MEDIUM-HIGH
Protection level: DANGEROUS

Official Description
Allows an application to get information about the currently or recently running tasks: a thumbnail representation of the tasks, what activities are running in it, etc.

Details
This permission is of moderate importance. It will allow an application to find out what other applications are running on your phone. While not a danger in and of itself, it would be a useful tool for someone trying to steal your data. Typical legitimate applications that require this permission include: task killers and battery history widgets. Other than that however, most apps should not need this permission.

<Via Androidforums>

So then I sent an email to Kiloo Games asking why this was needed for the game.   Here is their response:

 

Kiloo Support (Kiloo)

Mar 04 12:21 (CET)

Hi,

Thank you for your inquiry.

Subway Surfers needs that information to make sure no notifications pop-up when you’re in other apps.

Best Regards,

Kiloo Support 

Now I find this very interesting and a little percular.  It doesn’t sound like this is what it supposed.   If you read what Android Forums said then you would know we’ve given Subway Surfer permission to snoop on us and they can do what ever they want with that information because we AGREED to it.  

Many Users don’t care about this!

While I am not sure who actually care about this.  I am really concerned with my security and privacy.  I don’t think any application in their right mind would want to put this permission on any Application.   I think until people start asking questions or removing these applications they will keep doing this so they can build data on what people do when they aren’t playing the games they built.   You really want them to get your bank information or for that matter your passwords to other games or applications.

I am asking for a boycott of these types of programs to tell developers we don’t want our information to be public and they need to respect this.   If you have this installed on your android device it is best to remove it ASAP and contact them to tell them why you removed their game.   Until we do this they will not listen to us and respect our privacy!

Paul Sylvester

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