PlayServices ads library 7.5.0 need WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission [duplicate]

Question

In our build.gradle we updated the play-services ads library from 6.5.87 to 7.5.0

compile com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:7.5.0

After upgrading we see a new permission in our merged AndroidManifest.xml (placed in /build/intermediates/manifests/full/release/)

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

Regarding the log of the ManifestMerger this permission is added by play-services-ads:

ADDED from com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:7.5.0:30:9
    android:theme
ADDED from com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:7.5.0:31:13
    android:name
ADDED from com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:7.5.0:30:19
    uses-permission#android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE

In the official documentation, we do not see any hint that this permission is needed. Only the following permissions are documented:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE"/>

(https://developers.google.com/mobile-ads-sdk/docs/dfp/android/quick-start#modifying_the_android_manifest)

Is there any official information, why this new permission was added? Or is this a bug?

Currently we have trouble to explain our users, why we need this new permission.

EDIT: Wrong alarm! I was misinterpreting the manifest-merger-result.txt. The new permission was not added by the play-services-ads dependency, but we also added the play-services-location dependency. The play-services-location has a reference to play-services-maps, which needs this permission for caching the tiles.

The correct interpretation of the manifest-merger-result.txt is:

uses-permission#android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
ADDED from com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:7.5.0:22:5

The play-services-maps automatically add this "missing" permission, if the lib was added. It would be nice to know, if it is a good idea to remove this map-permissions, if we do not use the Map-API. Because we are only using the Location-API.

Answer 1

This was fixed as part of Google Play services 8.3 - the Maps API (which location relies on) no longer requires the storage permission and no longer adds it via manifest merger.