Android fans are being placed on alert when specialists found many Google Play Store apps are concealing a nasty secret.
Android users are being warned that over 1,000 Google Play Store apps have been found to be concealing a nasty secret.
Android is one of the world’s most used items of the software system, with over 2 billion devices running the Google mobile OS every month.
But Android users are not any strangers to security alerts, with some recent widespread threats being circulated via apps found on the Goole Play Store.
Six Android apps that were downloaded a staggering 90million times from the Google Play Store were found to have been loaded with the PreAMo malware.
While another recent threat saw 50 malware-filled apps on the Google Play Store infect over 30million android devices.
And currently, android users are being warned that over 1,000 apps found on the Google Play Store are hiding a nasty secret.
A new study has found that some 1,325 android apps from the Google Play Store were gathering user information that they shouldn’t have.
The analysis was conducted by the International computer science Institute (ICSI) who tested 88,000 apps from the United States Play Store.
The study found these Android apps were gathering data from devices even after people explicitly denied them permission.
The details that were gathered from android users were precise geolocation information and phone identifiers.
Serge Egelman, director of usable security and privacy analysis at the ICSI, said: “Fundamentally, consumers have very few tools and cues that they can use to reasonably control their privacy and make decisions about it.
“If app developers can simply circumvent the system, then asking customers for permission is relatively meaningless”.
Writing for Forbes, Zak Doffman – the founder and CEO of Digital Barriers – suggested android users on the way to keep safe from faux android app threats.
Doffman said: “Ultimately, there isn’t any substitute for common sense and treating apps from unknown sources as potential threats.
And that means checking carefully, not clicking casually.
We carry all of the most valuable and personal information we’ve got on our smartphones, we tend to|and that we} gladly provide those devices access to the cloud storage where we store the remainder.
Our phones grasp where we tend to live and work, and where we have a tendency to bank and spend.
That’s worth remembering before inviting strangers into our virtual homes and giving them permission to roam around simply because they ask nicely.”
