Manage Individual App Permissions with XPrivacy

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There’s no denying that privacy is a huge concern for a large number of mobile users across all operating systems. Short of smashing your wireless router and trading down to a 3310 that’s kept in a lead-lined box until you need to make a call, it can be incredibly difficult to keep track of where, when, and to whom your personal information is divulged.

Android applications require various permissions, which you are no doubt familiar with by now. Most require these for valid reasons. Some, however, may take advantage of a particular permission and use it to do something you might not be aware of or have expected. Apart from installing only applications that you absolutely need and trust, the best way to try and eliminate the possibility of permissions being abused is to use something like OpenPDroid to adjust these permissions on a per-app basis. The only downside to such a modification is that it can be difficult to put in place for the average user. XDA Senior Member M66B has taken a step towards making permissions management a whole lot easier with a little help from the Xposed Framework.

XPrivacy is an Xposed module that allows the user to view all the currently installed applications on their device and then adjust the individual permissions that app is able to use. Instead of simply preventing the application from collecting the data it is looking for, which can lead to force closes, XPrivacy will provide false data such as an empty contact list or spoofed location. A full list of the possible restrictions and any other information you could possibly want is available from M66B’s Github. The module is also open source, which is nice.

If privacy is a concern for you, take a look at the original thread for more information.