Traveling across the country has never
been easier with the help of a smartphone loaded
with map, photo, and social media apps, just to name a few.
My epic road trip began in the great state of Illinois.
Ah, Chicago, the Windy City.
Look, there's Lake Michigan.
I wonder how far The Bean is from here.
Let me check my map.
I can help you with that, Jack.
But first, I'll need access to all of your contacts.
Why do you need access to all my contacts?
I have my reasons.
Do you want to get to The Bean or not?
OK.
I guess.
Mount Rushmore.
This is so cool.
You know what?
I think I'm going to take a selfie
and make it look like my head's up there, too.
Now, I'm going to post it to social media.
Hi, Jack.
I'd love to post that for you.
But I need access to your microphone first.
My microphone?
That doesn't even make any sense.
I really want to post this picture.
OK.
Nice doing business with you.
You, too, I guess.
The Pacific Northwest, I made it.
All right.
Let's plan out the final days of my trip.
Hello, there, Jack.
Let me guess.
You want access to my camera, my contacts, and my microphone,
right?
No, just your location.
Location?
OK, fine.
You know, I've had enough of these apps requesting
my personal information.
I think I'm going to give my friend Justin Brookman a call.
Hey, Jack.
What's up?
Justin.
How's it going, man?
Doing good.
How's the big trip?
Good.
Listen, it seems like every time I use an app on my phone,
it wants to access my personal information.
What's the deal with that?
A lot of time, apps need permission just to work,
so a map app might need access to your location
to tell you when to turn left.
But in a lot of cases, apps really don't need permission,
so you should feel free to say no.
That's what I thought.
Listen, all these privacy requests
are making me a bit anxious.
What will these apps do with my information?
Hey, you never can quite tell.
So they might use it for ad targeting.
They might sell it to companies.
Or if they get access to your contacts,
they might use it to spam all your friends to say, hey, use
this app.
Jack loves it.
I don't like the sound of that.
So how do I know which apps to give permission to
and which permissions to give?
If the permission seems related to what the app does,
then maybe it makes sense.
So for a photo app, maybe it makes sense
to get access to the camera and to your phone storage.
But a lot of apps ask for permissions
they don't really need.
So if your solitaire app asks for access
to your contacts or your location,
you should feel free to say no.
OK.
In Chicago, my map app asked me for all my contact information.
So can I take those permissions back?
And if so, how?
In your phone settings, you can go under Privacy or under Apps.
And you can usually figure out how
to revoke permissions for access to information you
don't think they should have.
Man, Justin, thank you so much for this information.
You've made me feel a whole lot better.
All right, thanks a lot.
Bye.
See you later.
I was glad to help, Jack.
Hey, Rico.
You blocked our access to your personal data.
What gives?
The jig is up.
Now I know you can do your jobs without it.
Oh, dear.
Well, just don't tell anyone.
Of course.
Your secret is safe with me.