For Application Access there is a configuration option called Allow access to this table via...

Application Access is a feature that allows you to control the access level of other application scopes to your application’s data tables. By selecting the Allow access to this table via web services option, you can enable other application scopes to access your data tables using web services, such as SOAP or REST. However, the user performing the query via web services must have the correct permissions to access the table’s records. The user must have the appropriate roles and access controls to perform the operations on the table, such as create, read, write, or delete.

The other statements are not true when this option is selected. This option does not restrict the ability to delete records via web services, nor does it allow records to be always read. The access to the records depends on the user’s permissions and the web service method. This option also does not restrict access only to SOAP web services, but applies to both SOAP and REST web services. Finally, this option is not the only way to enable web service access to the table’s records. Even when this option is not selected, users with the correct permissions can use web services to access the table’s records, as long as they specify the application scope in the web service request.