Samsung Washing Machine App Requires Access to Your Contacts and Location
A series of Samsung apps that allow customers to control their internet-connected appliances require access to all the phone's contacts and, in some cases, the phone call app, phone's location, and camera. Customers have been furious about this for years.
On Wednesday, a Reddit user complained that their washing machine app, the Samsung Smart Washer , wouldn't work "unless I give it access to my contacts, location and camera."
"When I launch the app, the damned thing wants all sort of permissions: location, phone calls, media, and ... contacts??? The app won't work without these permissions," another Reddit user grumbled last year , referring to another Samsung app —called Smart Home—that requires the same seemingly exaggerated permissions. "Why would the Samsung Smart Home app need access to my contacts?"
The reviews for these two apps, both of which have more than a million installs according to their stats on the Google Play store, aren't very positive either. The Smart Washer App has an average of 2.1 stars, thanks to a slew of reviews that mention the unnecessary permissions.
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