Permissions

This page basically duplicates the 'permissions' tab from the extension's options page. If content on this page is ever found to differ from the content of the options page, please submit a bug. The descriptions on the installed extension's options page will always be the most up-to-date.

Please review these links for further information about permissions:

• https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/permission_warnings
• https://support.google.com/chrome_webstore/answer/186213?hl=en

Required Permissions

• storage
• chrome://favicon/

Optional Permissions

• tabs
• topSites
• management
• bookmarks

Where these are used

The required permissions are used mostly by the options page.

They allow the extension to display icons and save data either locally or to your Google Account (if you've enabled syncing in your browser and enabled extension syncing).

The optional permissions are used by the custom new tab 'Apps' page.

All of the optional permissions provide more functionality than the 'Apps' page needs, but extensions have to select permissions in their entirety for even a small subset of abilities. Here's how the 'Apps' page uses them.

tabs: "Access your tabs and browsing activity"

The 'tabs' permission is used to open apps in a new window (available in the rollover links). It's a nice-to-have feature, but is not necessary. If you don't trust this permission, leave it disabled. Only power users would be opening apps in new windows. See the development documents for more.

topSites: "Read and modify your browsing history"

This permission is bundled in the same warning as the history permission (which isn't used by this extension). The 'topSites' permission simply allows getting the top 20 most visited sites. The warning you get when enabling this permission is silly because it can't read any more of your history than the recent sites, and has no way to modify your history. See the development documents for more.

management: "Manage your apps, extensions, and themes"

The custom 'Apps' page only needs the 'apps' part of this permission. In fact, I have to filter out extensions and themes because everything is returned in the query. By 'manage', this means the extension can allow you to view, create, edit, or delete apps. Currently, the custom 'Apps' page retrieves apps and allows you to uninstall apps directly from within the 'Apps' page. You're provided confirmation. Generally, you should be cautious about enabling this permission in extensions, because it also allows extensions to install apps or uninstall the extension itself. Unfortunately, the permission is all or nothing, otherwise I'd request the bare minimum. This is the only required permission for the custom 'Apps' page to make sense. See the development documents for more.

bookmarks: "Read and modify your bookmarks"

Again, an all-or-nothing permission. The 'Apps' page can display between 5 and 40 bookmarks from your bookmarks bar. There's no modification going on. See the development documents for more.