The monitoring capabilities of mobile apps are becoming a concern for users, many of whom are worried that the apps on their connected devices might be able track them down, watch what they\u2019re doing or share their data. But these dangers could be easily averted by putting some simple security measures in place, warn cybersecurity experts from Kaspersky Lab.<\/p>\n
There are rising concerns among consumers about just how much of their Internet activity is being watched, or whether they are traceable through their online footprint.<\/p>\n
Kaspersky Lab has found, for example, that 58% of people in the UAE are uncomfortable with sharing their location information with websites and applications \u2013 a figure that has risen significantly from 42% in 2016.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, around half (56%) of people surveyed are very concerned that someone can see everything they do or watch on their device and a similar figure (55%) fear that someone could track them down using geolocation information from their device.<\/p>\n
These concerns are well-founded. Kaspersky Lab experts have found that apps can not only access a huge amount of data (such as crucial details about where users are, information about their contacts, activities and so on) but they also often work in the background without users knowing. According to the research, 83% of Android apps have access to their owners\u2019 sensitive data and 96% of Android apps can launch without consent. Nevertheless, worries about this access can be averted with some simple security measures.<\/p>\n
But people are avoiding the data safety or privacy measures that could help put their minds at ease \u2013 for example, about half of people (40%) admit they don\u2019t check the permissions of their pre-installed mobile apps on their Android and iOS devices and one-in-five (15%) don\u2019t check permissions when downloading or installing new apps onto their mobile devices. Because of this, mobile users are increasingly concerned but remain unprotected from potential data leakage.<\/p>\n
Dmitry Aleshin, VP for Product Marketing, Kaspersky Lab, said: \u201cApps have become an important part of our day-to-day lives. We use them for everything \u2013 from editing photos to updating our social media accounts, or from playing games to booking a table at a restaurant. But this research shows that despite our love for apps, we don\u2019t necessarily trust them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile people are certainly becoming more switched on about their apps tracking their online activity, they aren\u2019t necessarily putting measures in place to protect themselves from any potential problems. That\u2019s where we can help give users peace of mind. Our products are designed specifically to help people get on with their digital lives \u2013 and enjoy all the Internet has to offer without having to worry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaspersky Lab can protect users from unwanted mobile app activity. For example, Kaspersky Internet Security for Android protects users\u2019 mobile devices from potentially harmful mobile apps which can access personal data for malicious purposes. In addition, Kaspersky Battery Life analyses all applications on the user\u2019s device and identifies those that are working in the background and consuming device energy, allowing users to stop these \u2018battery gluttons\u2019 with one touch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The monitoring capabilities of mobile apps are becoming a concern for users, many of whom are worried that the apps on their connected devices might be able track them down, watch what they\u2019re doing or share their data. But these dangers could be easily averted by putting some simple security measures in place, warn cybersecurity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":20270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,275,103,399,258,54,262],"tags":[97,5958,3948,5959,1380,1392,102,5960],"class_list":["post-20266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-enterprise-security","category-intelligent-technology-newsletter","category-mobile","category-more-news","category-newsletter","category-research","category-used","tag-android","tag-dmitry-aleshin","tag-ios","tag-kaspersky-battery-life","tag-kaspersky-lab","tag-mobile-apps","tag-mobile-security","tag-vp-for-product-marketing"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20266"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20284,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20266\/revisions\/20284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}