![]() ![]() But Bouncer brings that same power to any Android device, regardless of its version, and it expands the system to work with permissions beyond just those three as well.īouncer costs a dollar to download. Notably, Google added a similar option into the operating system itself that lets you grant a one-time-use-only permission for location, camera, or microphone access if you have Android 11 or higher. You can even have Bouncer remove a permission automatically every time it's granted - so something like that Twitter location access can effectively become a temporary permission instead of an ongoing authorization. JR Raphael/IDGīouncer allows you to grant permissions to Android apps temporarily and then have them revoked without any effort. Just grant Twitter the needed location permission, look for the Bouncer notification, and give Bouncer the order to take the permission away when the day is over. Say, for instance, you're tasked with tweeting from a professional conference, and you want your location to be associated with any tweets you send during the event - but you don't want Twitter to retain access to your phone's location eternally. You can tap that notification to tell Bouncer to remove the permission as soon as you exit the app (by switching to another app or returning to your home screen) or after a set amount of time. With Bouncer on your phone, every time you give an app a new permission - be it for accessing your location, getting on the internet, viewing your phone's storage, or whatever the case may be - you'll see a notification appear at the top of your device. The aptly named Bouncer app is an easy way to make your permission decisions more nuanced. BouncerĪpps often require sensitive system permissions in order to perform their full range of functions - but if you tap into some of those functions only on occasion, you might not want to leave the associated permissions active forever. The app is open source, too, and it doesn't even ask for the ability to access the internet - so it couldn't transfer information off of your device if it wanted to. The app does inevitably require its own series of advanced system-level permissions in order to do what it needs to do, but it's all perfectly justifiable for its purpose (and the permissions are explained clearly upon installation). It actually offers an improvement over the default Android setup in that area, too, as it shows you persistent icons for camera, microphone, and location access instead of showing only cryptic and difficult-to-decipher dots after the first couple seconds. Privacy Dashboard puts valuable app usage info at your fingertips, no matter what Android version you're running.īeyond that, Privacy Dashboard provides universal access to another Android-12-inspired privacy advantage: the ability to see in real time whenever an app is accessing your camera, microphone, or location via a special icon in the upper-right corner of your screen. It also makes it as easy as can be to find and adjust any app's permissions and scale back what sort of data it's able to access - right from that single streamlined interface. Enhance your Android privacy basics Privacy DashboardĪndroid 12 brings a new streamlined app-assessing Privacy Dashboard into the operating system, but if you're still hanging onto a phone with an older Android version, you don't have to miss out.Īn app called Privacy Dashboard emulates the official Android 12 feature of the same name and gives you a helpful overview of exactly which apps have accessed which permissions on your phone and when. These are the apps that'll actually bring a meaningful boost to your privacy and security on Android.
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