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/
They also push the envelope on privacy, and frequently publish security reports.
not to discredit what they do and what's been said, but i think it's important to keep in mind (with one's threat model in mind also) that they're based in Sweden, a 14 eyes country.
What's 14 eyes?
basically an agreement between 14 countries to share signals intelligence amongst one another. effectively, if your data gets captured in Sweden, all the participating states are able to get their hands on it. check out the Wikipedia article for more details on 14 eyes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes#Fourteen_Eyes
Thank you.