It’s better to ask for permission than to ask for forgiveness, right?

Marco Arment on Apple's permissions and privacy problem:

Careful users can also make better decisions about whether to allow access when they’re prompted on demand. If I asked most careful people if Instapaper could have their location, they’d refuse, because there’s no obvious good reason. But if the app asks right when they enable a location-based setting from a screen that shows why it’s asking for their location, they can make a more educated decision. Similarly, if an app doesn’t seem to have a good reason when it asks for Contacts, a skeptical person can decline.

To me, this makes the most sense. Have the dialog pop up upon a specific action, informing users exactly what it is they're allowing access to. As it is now, you get two, sometimes three, pop ups when first opening an app. Adding more is not the answer to anything.

I had also never thought of the problems associated with listing permissions in the App Store. Marco explains how it could hurt an app like Instapaper:

That last one would definitely hit me. If all permissions were listed in the App Store, Instapaper’s customers would be wondering why it “needs” location (optional automatic dark mode based on sunset times) or contacts access (optional email-in contact addition, optional find-friends feature). They might refuse to buy the app because they think it needs these features to work, when in reality they’re minor features that most customers will never use.