News, 30.12.2022, 09:00 PM.
The end of the year is the time when people make decisions about changes in their lives. Some people are prepared to lose weight, others to quit smoking on the first day of the new year, and others want to spend less time on social networks. The statistics show that one in three New Years resolutions fail because people cannot track their progress. It’s exactly why many people use apps as a solution. Even though apps help to progress towards goals, they also affect your privacy.
However, not all apps that can track the progress of new years resolutions are the same. Researchers from Incogni reviewed 344 apps on the Google Play Store, say that some categories of apps are much worse than others. The analysis has 16 categories, according to each other, and each has a risk profile.
Incognis assesses the level of protection of files, what types of permissions users have to give them, and the kinds of safe permissions used to allow users to give them.
The results show a very small difference in app categories. The category of weight loss apps had the most effective results when it comes to privacy.
In second place are the design and renovation applications, while just behind them are the applications that push users to eat more and spend less time on social networks.
The best way to avoid smoking is using the right app to reduce the risk of making it to your health.
Analysis of Android apps revealed the general trends. Of all the analyzed applications, eighty percent said that at least one dangerous permission would be needed. The researchers define dangerous permission to be riskier because it allows the app to take personal data, or even control the device.
More than 74 percent of applications asked for the permission to read the contents of a USB memory, while 67 percent wanted the permission to change or delete the contents of the USB memory.
Three kinds of categories become the worst in the world. Selon a report published on the Incogni blog, the categories Volunteering, Weight Loss and Home Improvement/Renovation require at least one hazardous permit.
On the other hand, some apps who monitor smoking cessation require the least dangerous permissions, while 79 percent of those apps from that category asks for dangerous permissions.
The researchers found that popularity of apps is correlated with data privacy. Most popular apps are less concerned about user privacy. The most popular apps have a privacy risk score twice more than the least popular, and these apps ask for a total of five more and 2 more dangerous permissions.
Cover photo: freestocks.org. Pexels, Pexels.