Re: ebook-reader permissions - no explanation given

R.Wieser <address@is.invalid> wrote:

Hello all,
 
I was looking for a simple(!) ebook reader, and found the below :
 
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.axet.bookreader/
 
Ofcourse, I checked its permissions - which I now have questions about :
 
"read the contents of your shared storage
  Allows the app to read the contents of your shared storage."
 
Allright, otherwise it can't read any EPUB files.
 
"modify or delete the contents of your shared storage
  Allows the app to write the contents of your shared storage."
 
No idea why it would need to do that(1).
 
"read phone status and identity
  Allows the app to access the phone features of the device. This permission
allows the app to determine the phone number and device IDs, whether a call
is active, and the remote number connected by a call."
 
I can make a couple of guesses to why it would need this, but that doesn't
help me in the slightest.  Does any one have a (non-guessed) idea to why I
should allow this ?

This is the manifest file:
https://gitlab.com/axet/android-book-reader/-/blob/master/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml?ref_type=heads

which has the read storage permission, but not write or the phone status
permission.  Maybe the latter comes from some library it uses?

It appears to be to support API level 9 (Android 2.3.0) while targeting level 30
(Android 11) - maybe there's something about that which drags in additional
permissions (eg maybe separate read and write didn't exist on 2.3?).

Theo