SCARS™ Cybersecurity News: The Great Privacy Awakening
Courtesy of Symantec’s Annual Threat Report Reveals More Ambitious, Destructive, and Stealthy Attacks, Raising the Stakes for Organization
Bad Apps
With the recent Cambridge Analytica data scandal and the Facebook data privacy hearings, the implementation of the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), and revelations about app location tracking and privacy bugs in widely-used apps such as Apple’s FaceTime feature, consumer privacy has entered the spotlight the past year.
Smartphones could arguably be the greatest spying device ever created – a camera, a listening device and location tracker all in one that is willingly carried and used wherever its owner goes. While already targeted by nation-states for traditional spying, smart phones have also become a lucrative means by which to collect consumers’ personal information, with mobile app developers existing as the worst offenders.
According to Symantec research, 45 percent of the most popular Android apps and 25 percent of the most popular iOS apps request location tracking, 46 percent of popular Android apps and 24 percent of popular iOS apps request permission to access your device’s camera, and email addresses are shared with 44 percent of the top Android apps and 48 percent of the most popular iOS apps.
Digital tools that gather cellphone data for tracking children, friends, or lost phones are also on the rise and clearing the way for abuse to track others without consent. More than 200 apps and services offer stalkers a variety of capabilities, including basic location tracking, text harvesting, and even secret video recording.
SCARS™ Team
A SCARS Division
Miami Florida U.S.A.
TAGS: Bad Apps, Privacy, Cellphone, Digital Tools, Cyberstalkers, General Data Privacy Regulation, GDPR, location tracking, privacy bugs, permission to access, Symantec,
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