I am fully aware of what vpn services to use and not. I am not using Express VPN, I am simply doing research for a master thesis, when I came across these results from Express VPN. If you have any ideas or corrections, please let me know why a VPN provider would need to have access to these permissions.
Screenshot is from Exodus service, which let’s you view what exactly perimissions and trackers each app uses. You can check out the results and the tool for yourself here: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.expressvpn.vpn/latest/
Express VPN, PIA have a reputation for working in some very censored places like china.
But the main reason people don’t use Mullvad, is that they don’t advertise.
NordVPN, private internet access, ExpressVPN… All have massive advertisement budgets.
Mullvads mission doesn’t require that.