Tis the season to be… concerned? That’s how many people feel when a new update to Angry Bird Seasons arrived to the Market. Apparently included were new levels, a “Big Pig” and wait for it… wait for it– new permission requests! We’re not talking about the ‘prevent phone from sleeping’ permissions either. We’re talking about the game accessing phone states and SMS permissions. Now before everyone becomes skeptical and causes an uproar, Rovio has come out addressed users’ concerns:
“On Android, the Angry Birds game itself asks only for the permission to use the Internet. Versions of the game that include advertisements, support for in-app purchases, or both, require additional permissions. The ones that might concern our customers the most are coarse location, phone state and SMS related permission.
Coarse Location:
Coarse location is used to target advertisements geographically, for example to avoid showing Chinese advertisements in the USA and vice-versa. Android also allows finer location discovery, but we have decided not to enable it for advertisement purposes.Phone State Permissions:
The phone state permission is used to identify devices in order to implement advertisement frequency capping and targeting. Basically the aim is to avoid a situation where our customer has to view the same advertisement too many times on the device in question.SMS related permissions:
SMS related permissions allow in-app purchases, where available. For example the Mighty Eagle, to be securely billed on the device owner’s phone bill.Rovio does take privacy issues very seriously. The Android permissions that our games require are constantly reviewed and we strive to provide the best possible user experience while respecting our customers’ privacy”.
Perfectly logical explanations from Rovio. Kudos to them for coming out and addressing this in a prompt manner.
