Protect yourself from apps that spy – Correio da Manhã

Researchers detect apps that peer users.

 By JFS

It has a smartphone?

It seems there is a price to pay by Android applications in the Download is free: privacy. According to data collected by the French research center eurecom, some Apps Android are secretly linked to thousands of sites advertising and tracking information without the user’s knowledge.

The team eurecom did Download of more than two thousand Apps the Google Play Store to test that sites applications are trying to connect. In a report, Luigi Vigneri, who leads the research team reveals that found “several examples of aggressive communications to sites already associated with the activity of malware and viruses.”

While some activity is easy to explain, as it is not uncommon for applications to free advertising, other not so much. A app Call Music Volume EQ is connected to more than two thousand websites different, many of which host content deemed dangerous. The app has between ten and 50 million downloads , according to the Google Play Store.

How to fix it

Ten percent of Apps tested by eurecom were linked to 500 or more advertising links. Popular applications such as Eurosport Player or RunKeeper are linked to more than 800 sites . Still, both have the status Top Developer Google, a label that supposedly guarantees the seal of quality.

Luigi Vigneri and the team show that users can do to combat this abuse. Developed its own application called NoSuchApp , which will be available free of charge.

The newly created app controls the behavior of other applications and detects whenever one app installed is trying to reach contact with websites less friendly. The NoSuchApp should be released soon in the App Store.

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