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The app WhatsApp would like to have permission to access my device's photos, media and files.

If I grant permission, exactly what can (could) the application access?
Can it access all of the photos on my phone? Or just the photos I have shared or downloaded with the app? Can it access all of the phone's media?
Can it access all of the files on the phone?

Or does Android restrict what it can access? If so, what does it restrict it to and how?

I'm not interested in what WhatsApp says it will or won't access, or even what it has promised in its EULA. I'm more interested in what it could access, if it wanted to when granted the access.

wuodland
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Madeleine P. Vincent
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    Does this answer your question? Help understanding Whatsapp's permissions – beeshyams Jun 03 '20 at 15:33
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    Up to Android 9, any app (not specifically WhatsApp) with Storage permission granted can read anything on your external shared storage (/sdcard and physically external SD card). However writing to physically external SD card is limited. Since Android 10 Scoped Storage (SAF) has changed the whole scenario as Robert mentioned. // App's private directories are never accessible to other apps irrespective of what permission granted. Related questions: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/218469/218526, https://android.stackexchange.com/a/218338/218526 – Irfan Latif Jun 03 '20 at 16:40

1 Answers1

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You can take the description "device's photos, media and files" for sure. If you grant this permission to Whatsapp everything that is located in your "internal storage" (sometimes called sdcard section). This includes:

  • Photos (usually stored in the DCIM folder)
  • Videos
  • Downloads
  • Music
  • Ringtones
  • ...

Only on phones running Android 10 or higher because of the new "scoped storage" feature the access is a little bit limited. And starting with Android 11 it seems like Google will narrow down the permission you grant on the common files again.

Robert
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