So, you run into an old friend at a concert you haven’t seen in years. The music is loud and he or she is in a hurry, so you agree to catch up over lunch next week. Later, you realize that the number you have is outdated. Now what?
Why not call a friend who knows your long lost friend and get their number? Problem solved!
In our personal lives, there is nothing wrong with that. But when it comes to mobile devices, it illustrates why both you and your old friend need strong security on their phones. This is why:
Every time you download an app, you grant the developer permissions to access certain types of data. A mapping app will most likely ask you for permission to access your location data. A communications app may need some ability to view your phone or message logs. If it’s a contact manager app, you probably wouldn’t think twice about letting the developer store your phone’s contacts on their servers. For the most part, this is all pretty straightforward and not surprising at all.
What might surprise you is what happens to those permissions when the app you’ve downloaded has the ability to display ads.
Ad networks are critically important members of the mobile app ecosystem. If it weren’t for them, many developers would have no way of earning money for all their hard work. What many casual users don’t realize, however, is that the ad networks get access to the same permissions that you’ve given the app.
The good ad networks (and we mean the vast, vast majority) aren’t doing anything with those permissions you need to worry about. However, there are some who take advantage of those permissions to spam your friends, sell their numbers, and more.
If you have a security solution on your phone that knows which ad networks can access your data, your contacts are protected from this kind of evil. But what about you?
Remember that YOUR information is likely on all of your friends’ phones. If they don’t have a security app like yours, their phone number and social data could be at risk every time they download an app with an aggressive ad network.
So be a true friend and have your friends download and use a security app that protects you from bad ad networks. It’s good for them… and for you.