Results of a new research show that 73% of Android apps share users email addresses and 47% of iOS apps share location data with the third-parties.
These findings were discovered in a research named “Who knows what about me”, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard, and Carnegie-Mellon universities which studied 110 apps available on Google Play and the Apple App Store, says BBC.
In most cases, the Android Apps would leak data to Google and Facebook and most of them are those apps that offer free calls and text. When it comes to iOS, Localscope app was proven to be most leaky, sending data to 17 third-party domains. All of this is done usually without knowledge or permission of the user.
At the same time, 93% of Android apps tested were found connected with domain safemovedm.com. Researchers wrote that the purpose of this domain connection remains unclear.
“When we used the phone without running any app, connections to this domain continued, probably due to a background process of the Android phone”, wrote the researchers.
Research also showed that 3 out of 30 apps relating to fitness and health management will leak date to the third party.
HackRead.com has always warned users about wearable fitness trackers, how they can be hacked and leak your personal data and not to mention how smartwatches are vulnerable and a threat to your data.
In simple words, if you are wearing a smartwatch and typing on a keyboard, the vulnerable motion sensors on your smartwatch can expose what you are typing. However, at this time the team can’t detect special characters such as symbols, numbers, and punctuation used in passwords.
A survey of 2.000 Americans by the Pew Research Centre showed that 54% of the users would not install apps after learning how much of their data would be leaked while around 30% said they have uninstalled the apps. At the same time, 30% of smartphone owners turned off the location tracking on their phone.
Such findings may not be surprising for the users anymore. The Android OS is well known for its increased security flaws, in fact, according to researchers, cybercriminals are developing one Android malware every 17 seconds and 1 in every 5 Android Apps is Malware.
Meanwhile, Apple is known for its tight security but in past few months, several of its iOS versions were successfully targeted by cybercriminals.
Would you still use apps on your phone? Probably yes, because there’s no way out?
