[ITNEWS] get ready to see how bad your apps are

[aus9]

Hi

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/390365,pop...-code.aspx
a link suggests a security survey will be soon published on Android apps

One in ten apps send either the user’s device ID (IMEI code) or location data to a third party, and one even sends the user’s mobile phone number. One in ten applications connected to more than two ad networks.

The study found that over 30 percent of the apps transmit private data in plain text and plenty more are not encrypting the transfer of this data to best practice.

Read more: http://www.itnews.com.au/News/390365,pop...z38js1XtgR

Note to myself. or to my trusted CPA members...when I download an app....don't if it says it needs to access some things which have no relevance to the app. Look for an alternative.

[Sniper47]

They can have my imei, there's nothing they can do with an imei. It says one app sends a phone number. Which one is that?

The location data being transferred is somewhat disconcerting, but that is shared all the time. Every time you're online, or even when you're not (GPS, SIM).

I'm much more wary of the government knowing all this stuff. Which of course they can and do with the flick of a wrist.

[linr76]

if you are using a ROM with a permission manager (or are lucky enough to have KitKat already) you can at least in theory deny these requests.
in the long run it still is pretty difficult to stay anonymous all the way - and you would not want a smartphone if that is your priority.
even if you do not connect the phone to a google account, the framework is running in the background and broadcasts everything you do and where you are to google (ok, they wont know who you are, but still have the data).
Security and Usability is a rough balancing act. the more usability you want, the less secure it will be and vice versa.
if you have the time and expertise, you could build your own cloud at home and connect your phone to that, but its a painful process and needs a lot of prereqs.

for the "normal" user, just try not to use "junk" apps, get apps from recognized companies. they will still have your data but at least they will treat it more securely.

all this is just my 2cents...

[aus9]

great replies fellows.....the link is just forewarning of a report NOT yet made so I can't answer Sniper47's question

[WuddaWaste]

My ROM had a security manager, but my inherent laziness got annoyed with having to manually approve everything.

Convenience vs Security. Convenience won this round.

[mirandam]

... if you have the time and expertise, you could build your own cloud at home and connect your phone to that, but its a painful process and needs a lot of prereqs.
...

Just a side-note; europe based cloud company usually have a way better security then the dropbox us-based sorts. Examples: cloudme and wuala (sweden and swiss based).
I know their functionality is not on par with dropbox, but at least they are alternatives.

And for home-based cloud I would recommend polkast which isn't really that difficult to setup and does work very nice.

[linr76]

i personally would suggest OwnCloud, it has a lot of integration features for Android.

[mirandam]

i personally would suggest OwnCloud, it has a lot of integration features for Android.

Indeed I also use owncloud for contact and calendar sync, however, in a private cloud environment it is more cumbersome to install.

I have a small home cloud server consisting of a mini-pc running ubuntu 12.04 in a raid-1 config with 500GB (more than any internet cloud provider offers), perfectly capable of running an email server, a dnla server, a dns server, polkast and a chat and print server (and several others) with a very limited cost. It consumes no more than 40W which only requires a small ups to have it running full-time. It's quite amazing what you can do with limited resources just by chosing the right setup.

[aus9]

mirandam

server...... running ubuntu

You are my heroine, giggles. I hope you know about rootkit hunter. A very nice gentlemen I know is the author to the Official wiki....being rebuilt. If you don't know about it, let me know if I can pm you a link on the wiki.

[gruby500]

If u rooted u should install xposed and xprivacy, u can block any permission of any apk. Really works.since i discovered it , am useing it and no such problem