How to prevent Spotify to access photo/media? Spotify recently changed their policy and want to collect private data like contacts and photos/media. 

I am using Cyanogen OS which has the cm permission manager. I can disable access to contacts for any app. 

Since I never used an app that wanted access to my media I am not sure if the cm permission manager can prevent that too. 

So how can you prevent access to media on devices with CM?(mine is rooted)
I managed to get the desired result with the XPrivacy module, part of the XPosed framework.

I can precisely remove permissions from any app. In case the app relies on those permissions to work I can generate false values.

(Click image to enlarge)



As you can see I am able to remove the permission to use the Internet or I can go deeper and remove specific functions if needed. Furthermore I can decide upon app usage of a permission, which means whenever an app tries to use a permission I am asked once if I want to allow or decline this.

However this is not recommended to people who are afraid of resetting or reflashing their devices if needed. XPosed goes deep into the system of Android. It runs stable but regular backups are a must, just in case.