UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF APP PERMISSIONS ON SENSITIVE USER INFORMATION

Mobile apps are now a basic part of our daily life. We use them for chatting, entertainment, studying, shopping, banking, and many other tasks. To work properly, apps ask for different types of permissions such as location, contacts, camera, microphone, and storage. Some of these permissions are important for the app to function, but many apps ask for extra permissions that are not needed. These unnecessary permissions can put the user’s personal data at risk. This research studies how mobile app permissions affect sensitive user information and how they may lead to privacy problems. In this study, 100 Android apps from categories like social media, games, finance, and productivity were analyzed. Tools such as the Android Manifest file, MobSF, and APK Analyzer were used to check what types of permissions each app requested. Permissions were divided into three groups: Normal, Dangerous, and Unnecessary. The results showed that around 65% of apps asked for permissions that were not linked to their main work. Many apps requested high-risk permissions like storage (90%), location (80%), camera (60%), and contacts (40%). These permissions can reveal private data if misused. The study also looked at real cases where apps misused permissions. For example, CamScanner was found to contain malware, Facebook collected background data without need, and Zoom had issues with unauthorized camera and microphone access. These cases show that extra permissions can lead to serious security and privacy problems. The research also found that many apps use third-party libraries that secretly collect user data for advertising and analytics.