Last night I saw that I had a pending app update for the NZ Herald app on my android.

Going into the update, NZ Herald seems to be asking for some pretty excessive access to my personal data, without any explanation about why. The update 'whats new' simply says "Bug fixes and app enhancements", with no suggestions about what 'enhancements' actually need that data for.

I'm hoping it's a simple mistake on the part of the application developers, however for a news app to request access to my contact and my browser history is fishy to say the least.

I've removed the app from my phone rather than update. I'll use their mobile website from now on until they can either remove the requirement for accessing my personal info, or give me a damn good reason why they need it and plan to protect it.

Something for other users of the app to think about anyway