Ad Providers Containment Chamber

No application is really free; it is always paid from either yours or somebody else's pocket.

You pay for paid apps; advertisers (usually) pay for free apps. Last year's explosion of cheap Android phones brought to Market many people who are not willing or able to pay for application. Logical solution for developers was to introduce in-applications ads, but now iOS owners would like some stuff for free, thank you. With ads came privacy issues.

What privacy?

Feeling naked in front of ad providers?

If I owned very evil malware company, I would make ​​an application that needs access to both contacts and Internet for some legitimate purpose. I will suck all the data that I can. If the user revokes the rights, he will lose functionality, and if he grants them back, application will continue sending his private data to me for my evil plans.

That's what I wrote couple of days ago as preparation for one article. And then the reality caught me.

British Sunday Times published, as some say, typical tabloid article about Android Facebook application with excessive rights; it can read your text messages and snap a snapshot of your surroundings whenever it likes (article is not free, so check this). Facebook opposed these claims fiercely. Not going into discussion what they really did or didn't do with the data, this scenario is perfectly plausible. Be it Android or iOS, once you allow certain permission, application can use it at its own discretion until you uninstall it (Android) or revoke the permission (iOS).