New update asking for expanded permissions: Contacts and Wi-Fi Connection Status

I can understand the Wi-Fi Connection Status, but not my Contacts.

This is a huge red flag to me, and generally ANY app that asks for that is un-installed. Needless to say this limits my use of my SmartThings home system.

Please fix this - I’m not going to upgrade to the new app and in fact am thinking about changing my home controller to another system because of this issue.

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Contacts access allows greatly improved notification options for SmartApps like Smart Home Monitor.

Nope. You can ask for a specific contact in your app for that purpose, but I am not going to allow access to the entire list to any app. Don’t take that personally, its just a good security practice.

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Except my app crashes when I try to add a contact. Maybe due to all the other issues going on right now? The potential benefit is great though!

Please submit a support ticket so We can capture your device information and QA it on our side.

Mine seems to crash only when adding a contact with a picture already associated with it. Will file a ticket.

Will do. Just didn’t want to inundate you guys with tickets given the other issues going on.

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I’m with NetDef on this one. This is sketchy at best. I can add whatever contact info I want the app to have, manually. Asking for access to my contacts is uncalled for.

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Yeah I’m generally very leery of this type of thing as well.

It starts with good intentions, but after the app has access to the Contacts list that can turn into uploading the Contacts to the cloud, or comparing to see which of your friends are on the platform, and usign other sources to build an advertising profile.

Not saying that’s where ST is going, but after the permissions are granted any of these changes can be made without further notifications to the end user.

Absolutely.
It’s nothing personal Smartthings.
I no longer trust anyone with my personal info.

Hopefully when Android M releases, SmartThings will update their mobile app to take advantage of runtime permissions, so you could individually deny the contacts permission request.

Is there a way around allowing access to the contacts for this? I do not want to give smartthings that access and I do not need the smart notifications features. I use the hub to control a series of light switches and motion sensors but not to track any peoples activities.

Are you saying that if I want access to my contacts via a ST location it can be granted?

I think people are blowing this out of proportions on this topic. If you have tried segregating push notifications, this is pretty critical when you have more than one person on your ST account.

In a previous version of the ST Android app (April of this year), if you didn’t have the Contacts permission allowed, you would be forced to login to SmartThings after a period of time, the next time you opened up the app.

See previous thread on this and posts between April 28th and May 3rd. I specifically tested the OPs scenario and could reproduce it at that time under that version of ST.

So if you end up with whacky behavior because you don’t want to allow the Contacts permission to be allowed, you will have an idea why.