SAFE BY DESIGN · EPISODE 23

Why Does This App Need That?

Apps ask for permissions all the time, and most children tap Allow because it's the button between them and the game. One small question changes that.

Half of Arjun's class had a new puzzle game, the kind where you slide colourful tiles until a picture appears. On Sunday afternoon, from the living-room floor and a sea of building blocks, he asked Riya before installing it, which was the family rule now. She said yes from the sofa. It was a puzzle game. What could it possibly need?

Quite a lot, it turned out.

The first box asked to see the tablet's contacts, to help him find friends to play with. Arjun tapped Allow before anyone looked up. The next box asked for the camera. The one after that wanted the microphone.

He held the tablet out. “Mumma, it keeps asking things.”

Riya put down the block she was holding and came to sit beside him. “What's the camera for, in a puzzle?” Arjun didn't know. Neither did she.