Firefox OS users can revoke individual permissions for app

Firefox OS gets an option to revoke individual permissions per app. For example, users can allow Facebook to access the contact list, but prevent Facebook from saving the user’s location.

A developer has put that option in the Developer Settings of Firefox OS, he says. The feature works from Firefox OS 2.1 under the name Verbose App Permissions. The feature only works on apps that users install through Marketplace. Users can choose whether to set permissions to Allow, Deny or Prompt; in the latter case, the phone asks if the app is allowed.

The developer does warn that the ‘permission manager’ can cause apps to stop functioning properly and remain in a ‘wait’ function. In that case it is possible to close the app and still allow permissions.

Android doesn’t have such a ‘permission manager’ by default, although it was a hidden menu in Android 4.3. Several custom ROMs do have the feature, including CyanogenMod, Huawei’s Emotion UI and Xiaomi’s Miui. Apple also lets iPhone apps ask for permission for things like location and viewing the contact list.

Mozilla focuses Firefox OS mainly on very cheap smartphones. The Indian retailer Intex presented the Cloud FX on Monday, a Firefox OS device with a 3.5 “hvga screen and Spreadtrum SC6821 processor with a single Cortex A5 core and a maximum clock speed of 1 GHz. The device costs 25 euros converted. .