Permissions

On Android, app permissions shall regulate access to resources and guarantee a certain form of „privacy”. Unfortunately, on-board utilities are a complete failure here – as they are either non-existing (up to Android 5/Lollipop), or much too low granular (Android 6 and up). A must-read on this topic is Das Android Berechtigungsmodell: Ein perfides Konstrukt by security expert Mike Kuketz (Googletranslated English variant here). So we have to substitute with 3^rd party utilities – to inspect what apps have access to (possible without root) as well as to regulate that access ourselves (usually requires root).

Permission Checker

2026-03-10

CRAM App Analyser (5@150) 7 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2017-11-28
Privacy Dashboard (4.6@3,920) Ǥ 6 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2024-06-07
aSpotCat - Permission Checker (4.5@1,678) Ǥ 7 4
Permissions Watchdog (4.3@92) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2015-06-15 watches on-install (as Playstore/Android 6+ hide permissions now)
Permission Friendly Apps (4.2@2,292) 0 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2015-04-20 Github; Kurztest 1/2018
Permission Pilot (4.2@500) 5 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github
App Permission Watcher (3.9@496) 0 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2013-12-05
PrivacyBreacher (3.8@38) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2020-10-15 Github; Vorstellung 5/2020; what information can be accessed without any permission required?
Android Permissions (3.4@204) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-06-02 Github
App Permissions (3.2@979) 3 1 LastUpdate: 2020-07-20
Chairlock (0@0) 4 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2022-02-28
Permissions Summary (0@0) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github
Permissions Manager (0@0) 3 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2022-10-26 Github; warns about dangerous permissions given to installed apps

Permission Manager

AppOps FrontEnds

2026-03-08

These are front-ends for the built-in AppOps available with Android 4.3/4.4. Do not require root.

Permission Manager X (4.5@130; ~EUR 2.00) Ǥ 11 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; needs either root or ADB for full support
Revo Permission Analyzer (3.3@764) Ǥ 11 27
ADBungFu (0@0) 3 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2022-01-21

Stand-Alone Permission Manager

2026-03-09

If not noted otherwise, these will require root.

XPrivacyLua (5@2) 1 Github; XDA; successor of XPrivacy
Permission Manager X (4.5@130; ~EUR 2.00) Ǥ 11 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; needs either root or ADB for full support
App Ops - Permission manager (4.3@4,414) Ǥ 7 2 LastUpdate: 2024-02-06 Android 5-7; root & non-root
App Permission Manager (4@29,231) Ǥ 15 12
XPrivacy (4@25) 7 LastUpdate: 2015-07-03 Tutorial; Vorstellung 5/2015 | 7/2015; XDA Thread; Schnelleinstieg; this is primarily a privacy manager, so only cares for privacy permissions (see FAQ); supports on-demand restricting and fake/null data; root & XPosed framework required: Android 4, 5 & 6
App Permission Manager Android (3.5@679) 5 15
App Permission & Tracker (2.1@270) Ǥ 7 2 LastUpdate: 2024-07-06