Woolworths Android App Has Psycho Permissions


Shoppers were happy when Woolworths added an Android app to its range, but they’re less than impressed with the most recent update. Why on earth should a shopping list app have the ability to make calls from your phone and monitor all the other apps running on it?

Permissions requested by the new app include the ability to make calls, monitor other apps running on your system and take photos automatically:

That has led to a host of critical comments in user reviews on the Android Market. The content which the update adds — new health information, improved shopping list functions and the ability to save a recipe — certainly don’t seem to justify that kind of widespread access.

We’re reaching out to Woolworths for an explanation of why the app is set up this way. In the meantime, we can only echo our earlier advice: if an app makes ridiculous permission requests, don’t install it. This falls into that category. Thanks Geoffrey for the tip!

Update: Woolworths has acknowledged the issue and promised a fix.


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