SMARTPHONE owners have been urged to remove certain apps that could be spying on their activity.
Some of the most popular apps on your device might be doing more harm than good.
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It’s no surprise that apps are constantly gathering data on you, such as your location.
But what you might now know is that they are constantly selling this data to third parties without your knowledge.
Sometimes, they might even be spying on you by accessing your microphone or camera discreetly.
To help users avoid this, Reader’s Digest has revealed a few apps to remove now.
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CAMSCANNER
CamScanner, an app that allows you to scan documents onto your phone, is another platform that you don’t need.
Apps that scan documents in general are a waste of space because your phone’s camera can do a perfectly fine job.
What’s more, CamScanner has been linked to several data breaches since it came out a few years back.
The bottom line is you can save time and money, and protect your data data by simply using your camera.
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Ana Bera is a cybersecurity expert with Safe at Last.
“Cybersecurity experts have found a malicious component installed in the app that acts as a Trojan Downloader and keeps collecting infected files,” Ana Bera, a cybersecurity expert with Safe at Last, said.
“This kind of app can seriously damage your phone and should be de-installed instantly. Luckily, once you remove it from your phone, it is highly unlikely that it will continue harming you.”
WhatsApp is one of the most popular, if not the most popular, communication apps in the world.
More than one billion users have it downloaded worldwide, however, experts have expressed concern about the platform.
“This is a call to action for users who may be living under a rock and unaware of the vulnerabilities that were disclosed earlier this year,” Michael Covington, VP of Product for mobile security leader Wandera, told Reader’s Digest.
“The vulnerabilities with WhatsApp—both iOS and Android versions—allowed attackers to target users by simply sending a specially crafted message to their phone number,” he added.
“Once successfully exploited, the attackers would be granted access to the same things WhatsApp had access to, including the microphone, the camera, the contact list, and more.”
One of the first apps you should erase off your phone is Facebook as it tends to track your location and use up a lot of your data.
This happens because the app connects to many third-party platforms and other services on your phone.
You may even benefit from deleting and re-downloading the app as a way to clear space on your device.
QR CODE SCANNERS
QR code scanners became popular after the Covid-19 pandemic.
By scanning a QR code, you can visit a website’s URL quickly and effortlessly.
However, now most smartphones come pre-equipped with QR code readers.
This eliminates the need for a QR code scanner app, as it wastes space on your device.
What’s more, these apps often collect personal information that can be intercepted by hackers.
FLASHLIGHT
If you have a flashlight app downloaded on your device, you can go ahead and delete it.
First of all, your smartphone likely has its own flashlight built-in, rendering any flashlight apps redundant.
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Second, these apps have been uncovered to be very dangerous by cybersecurity experts.
“Like many other third-party apps on Google Play, a number of these flashlight apps have proven themselves to be rather suspicious in their behavior,” Komando reports.
