Your most useful Android apps

[dedwards]

how do you know which apps are genuine,"honest", and which apps could be stealing your ID, personal info etc. Obviously there are the popular apps which I have no concerns about but there are billions I could never know. Is it neccessary to load something like Nortons anti virus. I don't understand the "app permissions" bit yet (and don't really use any apps on my phone so this is all new to me). So much to learn!

Generally an Antivirus shouldn't be necessary as long as you only download popular apps from google play. The App permissions bit is indeed the bit to look at and you need to make a judgement call on whether you trust the app not to abuse each permission it uses. For example, many tide apps have the "precise location (GPS and network-based)" permission. Chances are, they are just using your location to guess your nearest tidal data but with that permission they also technically have the ability to track your device if the app writer was maliciously minded.