{"id":2875,"date":"2013-07-10T12:30:32","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T16:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=2875"},"modified":"2013-07-10T12:30:32","modified_gmt":"2013-07-10T16:30:32","slug":"bitdefender-free-apps-are-the-equivalent-of-smartphone-spyware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/07\/10\/bitdefender-free-apps-are-the-equivalent-of-smartphone-spyware\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitdefender: Free apps are the &#039;equivalent of [smartphone] spyware&#039;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.neowin.net\/news\/bitdefender-free-apps-are-the-equivalent-of-smartphone-spyware\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/iosapp-screen.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We all know that free apps are almost never truly free and that most of them are monetized with ads inside the app itself. But according to the security and antivirus company Bitdefender, we grossly underestimate how much these apps really cost.<br \/>\nIn a recent report, Bitdefender named free apps the \u201cequivalent of spyware\u201d because users unknowingly hand over a lot of personal information when installing them. Bitdefender looked at iOS and Android apps targeting more than 500,000 free applications. The research revealed that there\u2019s little difference between the two operating systems when it comes to the user\u2019s privacy. As for the apps themselves the results are somewhat alarming.<br \/>\nAbout 45 percent of the iOS apps that were looked at had location tracking capabilities, with 35 percent of Android apps also featuring this capability. And while this may not sound too bad, here\u2019s where the scary part starts: 19 percent of iOS and 8 percent of Android apps have the ability to look at the user\u2019s contact list.<br \/>\nSomewhere around 9 percent of Android apps have a chance to leak the device\u2019s phone number to third-party advertisers, while 15 percent may leak the device ID. Apple has phased out the apps\u2019 ability to check the Device ID since iOS 5 was released.<br \/>\nTargeting users with ads is nothing new but Catalin Cosoi, chief security strategist at Bitdefender, says that this process is a much more insidious one on smartphones. \u201cOn mobiles, advertising frameworks can learn your communications habits, friends, friends&#8217; contacts, location and \u2013 more frequently \u2013 all of the above at the same time,\u201d he added.<br \/>\nAnd the real problem here is that folks either don\u2019t even know this is happening or that many didn&#8217;t realize they&#8217;ve actually agreed to this when they downloaded the application.<br \/>\nvia <a href=\"http:\/\/www.neowin.net\/news\/bitdefender-free-apps-are-the-equivalent-of-smartphone-spyware\" target=\"_blank\">Bitdefender: Free apps are the &#8216;equivalent of [smartphone] spyware&#8217; &#8211; Neowin<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all know that free apps are almost never truly free and that most of them are monetized with ads [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[65,384,549,849,1017],"class_list":["post-2875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","category-software","tag-android","tag-free-apps","tag-ios","tag-privacy","tag-spyware"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-Kn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9522,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2019\/02\/24\/will-it-bend-this-week-in-tech-707\/","url_meta":{"origin":2875,"position":0},"title":"Will It Bend? &#8211; This Week in Tech 707","author":"NCCT","date":"February 24, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/qC0DabXmX8Q Folding phones at MWC, Hololens 2, conspiracies on YouTube, and more. -- Foldable Phones Hit MWC 2019 -- Microsoft Announces Hololens 2 -- Netflix at the Oscars -- Apple and Goldman Sachs Release Credit Card Linked to iPhone -- Apple to Combine iPhone, iPad and Mac Apps -- YouTube:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Microsoft&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/microsoft\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/qC0DabXmX8Q\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9366,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2018\/06\/10\/this-week-in-tech-670-go-theranos-or-go-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":2875,"position":1},"title":"This Week in Tech 670: Go Theranos or Go Home","author":"NCCT","date":"June 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/jCxygSzkfL4 --A New Tech Manifesto by Baratunde: how to reinvent social media to improve all our lives. --Apple's WWDC announcements: Screen Time restores balance to your life, memojis avoid the uncanny valley, ARKit 2 might (might) actually have usefull apps, Siri Shortcuts might (might) make Siri useful, macOS Mojave makes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Apple&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Apple","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/apple\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/jCxygSzkfL4\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9330,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2018\/04\/03\/security-now-657-protonmail\/","url_meta":{"origin":2875,"position":2},"title":"Security Now 657: ProtonMail","author":"NCCT","date":"April 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/OeSZg-ph3Ns This week we discuss \"DrupalGeddon2\", Cloudflare's new DNS offering, a reminder about GRC's DNS Benchmark, Microsoft's Meltdown meltdown, the persistent iOS QR Code flaw and its long-awaited v11.3 update, another VPN user IP leak, more bug bounty news, an ill-fated-seeming new eMail initiative, Free electricity, a policy change at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Security&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/OeSZg-ph3Ns\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9910,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2025\/02\/11\/slap-and-flop-siri-ios-18-3-update-apple-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":2875,"position":3},"title":"Slap and Flop &#8211; Siri, iOS 18.3 Update, Apple Music","author":"NCCT","date":"February 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Xwqi58VczQ4 What's going on with Siri? iOS 18.3 update is out now, along with a 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