Wel, after looking through permissions and third party applications, Obeto was worried about just how much appeared to be being asked for by applications. So he asked Microsoft's Scott Hanselmann what was up. The simple answer? Defaults.
The developer has a manifest file that includes these by default. They need to remove the ones that they don't need, that's all. This sounds like the developer just didn't think... Looks like a simple mistake.
Then there was choosing which US network to put the company on, but I think that's a story Obeto can explain far better on his site.
Application permissions are a tricky balance - if developers ask every time then people simply agree and skip over them, but confirmation is needed in many cases by the operating system before it can grant application access. And in the case of the Data Protection Act in the UK, permission must be explicitly sought for the use of personal data such as the address book.
Perhaps it's easy for webmasters to reach out and check with Microsoft, but for everyone else perhaps a clearer route for app permissions is needed?