However, if you don't look there and just see the scary warning, you are left wondering what is going on. For example, this Chrome update states why it needs the permission in the "What's New" page. Unfortunately at this time there doesn't seem to be a way for app developers to document why they need particular permissions, except in external sources. Not to mention the camera app which is built-in to the phone.Įdit: The question was updated with a screenshot of what the phone shows when you are prompted to update the app. Google Apps that can access the camera/mic: Heck, they could build that right into the OS and just not tell anyone. For myself I consider the fact that Google already has a bunch of apps on my phone which have access to my camera and mic, so if Google wanted to spy on me they already can. Or maybe you trust an open-source Android variant like Cyanogenmod. If you decide that you trust Microsoft or Apple more than Google, you can switch. Otherwise you're stuck with what Android provides. You can switch to a different browser that doesn't support WebRTC. One hopes that they don't introduce security flaws that allow unauthorized access to the camera/mic by malicious websites.Īs to what you can do about it, on a rooted phone you can uninstall Chrome or install a permissions-control app that denies permissions to installed apps. So if you use Chrome on Windows (and soon Firefox too) then you are implicitly trusting the vendor of those programs to not take pictures of you when you don't authorize it. The WebRTC people have at least nominally considered the privacy implications, by adding an info-bar to Chrome:Ĭhrome on Windows is said to have access to your camera and mic. WebRTC itself is designed to expose your camera and mic to the browser, so that web-apps can implement video-conferencing and other multimedia solutions in-browser.
This version requests two new permissions, Camera and Modify Audio Settings, to support WebRTC, an experimental feature under development.
The Chrome page in the app store says this about the new permissions:
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