Android Apps Expose Private Data - Worrying?

[Guest peterx666]

Saw a write up on Znet saying ......

About 20 percent of the 48,000 apps in the Android marketplace allow a third-party application access to sensitive or private information, according to a report released on Tuesday.

Some of the apps were found to have the ability to do things like make calls and send text messages without the mobile user doing anything. For instance, five percent of the apps can place calls to any number and two percent can allow an app to send unknown SMS messages to premium numbers that incur expensive charges, security firm SMobile Systems concluded in its Android market threat report. SMobile is not saying those apps are all malicious, but is making the point that there is a potential for abuse.

Meanwhile, dozens of apps were found to have the same type of access to sensitive information as known spyware does, including access to the content of emails and text messages, phone call information, and device location, said Dan Hoffman, chief technology officer at SMobile Systems.

For more on this story, read Report says be aware of what your Android app does on CNET News.

Should we be worried??? here is the URL see what you think......

http://www.zdnet.com/news/report-be-aware-...747?tag=nl.e550

Pete ;) :(

[Guest HustlinDaily]

When you download an app, it asks for permissions and tells you what those permissions are.

If a certain permission makes sense for a certain app (like Handecent asking to send SMS or Google Voice app asking to make calls) and the user ratings of the app is high, I think the OS is pretty well designed in that aspect.

[Guest three_pineapples]

This story is completely beat up.

Yes applications might exploit their permission and steal your data. If an app is open source, people can confirm that it is ok, so you're generally safe.

But these articles imply other platforms are safer. That is wrong. You just have to look for the story about the iPhone app that uploaded users photos to a public webserver. This app got through Apple's screening process!!!

The point is that you should always be careful what you put on your phone. Contacts and phone numbers won't really do a random developer much good. Your credit card details might. Just be careful what you enter into apps, and your phone.

If you're scared, then you probably shouldn't have a smartphone. It's no different from the millions of people who put their mobile number up on facebook for friends of friends or the public to see.

[Guest Uxian]

This story is completely beat up.

Might have something to do with it being a press release from a company that just started selling an Android anti-spyware app (though without root I can't imagine it's capable of doing much more than scanning the list of installed apps and comparing package names to a blacklist). Funny that just the day after this came out, Google announced that they can remotely remove malware from your phone, making this software completely redundant anyway.

http://android-developers.blogspot.com/201...ntent=Google+UK

[Guest peterx666]

Might have something to do with it being a press release from a company that just started selling an Android anti-spyware app (though without root I can't imagine it's capable of doing much more than scanning the list of installed apps and comparing package names to a blacklist). Funny that just the day after this came out, Google announced that they can remotely remove malware from your phone, making this software completely redundant anyway.

http://android-developers.blogspot.com/201...ntent=Google+UK

The point is tho that although an App asks for permission and shows you what it can access, most times we want the App that much that we just accept that part without thinking?

Pete :lol: