You might have seen an update available Sunday in the Play Store and assumed it was simply updated in preparation for the upcoming Super Bowl, but if you checked the new permission the app is requesting, you might have been surprised. While the app may indeed have been updated to prepare for the Super Bowl, it also wants to check your calendar, send emails without your knowledge and gain access to your “confidential information.”

As you can see on the screenshot on the left, the full gamut of new permissions the app is requesting includes:

* add or modify calendar events

* send emails to guests without host’s knowledge

* read calendar events plus confidential information

Of course, there could be perfectly logical explanations for these permissions – perhaps Verizon’s planning to help you plan your Super Bowl party by scheduling it on your calendar for you and sending emails out to your “guests” automatically (but that wouldn’t be “without host’s knowledge” would it?). Also, exactly what “confidential information” is Verizon trying to read?

If any of you see these new permissions as harmless or can show that they make sense, please feel free to do so on the comments. Please do so after you consider how these new permissions would look to the average user, who probably has no idea why Verizon’s NFL Mobile app wants these permissions.

One of the most common complaints about Verizon phones is the scores of bloatware apps Big Red crams onto your phone that you have no use for. Although I have always been a staunch opponent of Verizon’s bloatware, I’ve gotten hours of enjoyable use out of the NFL Mobile app. I’ve especially enjoyed the $5 monthly subscription service that lets me watch NFL Red Zone on Sunday afternoons and the full games on Sunday and Monday nights. With this latest update, though, I’ll be content to do without NFL Mobile on Super Bowl Sunday (or I might restore the previous version from Titanium Backup).

The recent update to My Verizon Mobile that seeks to access your list of actively running apps and now this update to NFL Mobile show that Verizon seems to have crossed the line from annoying bloatware to potentially dangerous spyware.