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More Than 25% of Android Apps Know Too Much About You
CowboyRobot writes "A pair of reports by Juniper and Bit9 confirm the suspicion that many apps are spying on users. '26 percent of Android apps in Google Play can access personal data, such as contacts and email, and 42 percent, GPS location data... 31 percent of the apps access phone calls or phone numbers, and 9 percent employ permissions that could cost the user money, such as incurring premium SMS text message charges... nearly 7 percent of free apps can access address books, 2.6 percent, can send text messages without the user knowing, 6.4 percent can make calls, and 5.5 percent have access to the device's camera.' The main issue seems to be with poor development practices. Only in a minority of cases is there malicious intent. The Juniper report and the Bit9 report are both available online."
If only there were some way for me to tell which permissions an app will use when I install it!
I've installed LBE Privacy control and it blocks unnecessary permissions for many apps. Why does a keyboard need internet access? The only thing I'm concerned about... What does LBE know, and what does it share?
We need a website listing apps and what persmissions they require vs use.
Developers will start paying attention when their apps are publicly shamed.
Lets have a little balance
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/15/iphone-privacy-app-path-facebook-twitter-apple_n_1279497.html?ref=mostpopular
Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram all send email addresses and phone numbers to their local servers.
The whole thing blew up and ended up with US congressmen sending letters to Tim Cook. This was feburary this year
"This incident raises questions about whether Apple’s iOS app developer policies and practices may fall short when it comes to protecting the information of iPhone users and their contacts."
Butterfield and Waxman then quote parts of Apple’s iOS developer website which states that Apple provides a comprehensive collection of tools and frameworks for storing, accessing and sharing data. It is then questioned whether Apple requires apps to request user permission before transmitting data about a user."
That study is irrelevant. Most of those apps don't know that because they need to, but because they are free and the averts do.
Do the same study on payed apps. For example, GPS location access is not present on any of the games I bought so far.
The way things are setup on stock android is a nightmare. The supposed "Walled Garden" doesn't even exist. Android doesn't have malware/viruses because "legit" apps can walk right in and do whatever they want. Want to steal all your users contacts and use them for spam? There's a built-in API for that.
I was trying to download a widget for screen brightness and 99% of the free ones wanted internet access permissions. It was just absolutely atrocious.
The only redeeming feature is how easy it is to root and fix.
one that is the smartphone (portable computer) and that will not have sms, cell service, address book, etc. rooted and firewalled and monitored.
2nd phone would be a dumb phone that has no networking at all in it, simply just to send and receive voice calls.
until there is a hard boundary (enforced, like a true barrier) between the soft apps and things that can cost you money (dialing out, stealing your contact list or local data), it just does not seem worth it to bundle all your stuff into one box.
sure, its convenient but the trust model is not good enough.
more and more, I just leave the smartphone home and use it as a wifi only device. at least I know that no sms BS is coming thru and no outgoing calls or wan connects could ever happen that would be costly or info-leaking.
seriously, I'm demotivated to invest more of my personal info on a box that I have less and less control over.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
I root all of my Android devices and install the DroidWall app. It allows me to block network access to any app regardless of whether you give them permissions when installing. It's allowed me to download and use many apps that I would otherwise not have used because they wanted network access. It even lets you decide if you want to block the app on WiFi, cell data, or both.
In life you hoped to do what you could but mostly you did what you were told and that was the end of it.
If you've stayed at a hotel, odds are good someone's seen you nude.
In that case, I'm glad I'm ugly as sin, and hope I've blinded them. :)
More Twoson than Cupertino