Little Life Moths Commons · digital agency

Permission Translator

A permission popup is really several questions squeezed into one button: what can this feature access, how much, when, for how long, and for what purpose? Explore those pieces before deciding.

Privacy: this page runs entirely in your browser. It has no analytics, account, server upload, external scripts, or AI API. Reloading discards what you typed.

This page cannot tell whether an app is trustworthy. A permission can be technically reasonable and still be used badly. A permission can also look scary while being necessary for a feature you explicitly want.

The five-question permission habit

  1. Capability: what could this permission technically let the app do?
  2. Scope: all items, selected items, precise location, approximate location, one folder, every folder?
  3. Timing: one time, foreground only, or background?
  4. Persistence: does the app need continuing access after this task?
  5. Behavior: what does the app say it will actually do with the capability, and can you verify that independently?

OS permission is a capability boundary. It is not proof of actual behavior, honesty, data retention policy or good intent.

AI features add one more layer

If an AI feature gets access to photos, files, contacts, health data or messages, ask whether the data is processed locally on your device, sent to a provider, retained, used to improve models, accessible to human reviewers, or passed to another connected service. Those are separate questions from the device permission itself.