Contrary to what you’ve heard, Android is almost impenetrable to malware

When people refer to 'malware' on Android, they tend to mean sketchy apps that mine your contacts and other metadata the app requires access to.

Where "almost impenetrable" means 1 in 833 app installs is malicious according to numbers in their own carefully baited article.

The reason cheesy apps ask for outrageous permissions is (usually) that the ad network they use for monetization wants to do (usually cheesy) behavioral targeting. So it intrudes on your privacy as much as it thinks it can get away with.

In Android 4.3 you can selectively turn off permissions. It's a hidden feature and you need a hack like this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appaholics... to expose it.

With this set of settings, you can turn off unwanted permissions and watch your cheesy apps throw unhandled exceptions when they invade your privacy.