Not all apps that collect data about other installed

[zakiyatasnim]

Espionage activities
The researchers examined 14,342 free Android apps on the Google Play Store and 7,886 open-source apps and analyzed how they used IAM. The study found that 4,214 Google Play apps, or just over 30% of those reviewed, used IAM. Only 228 open-source apps, or just under 3%, collected details about other apps. With over 3 million apps in the Google Play Store, the actual number of apps that are meddling is almost certainly an order of magnitude higher than the 4,214 found in the study.

The following mobile app categories collected data most frequently: Games (73%), Comics (71%), Personalization (61%), Auto & Vehicles (54%), and Family Apps (43%). The figure below lists IAMS usage across all categories.

The vast majority of Google Play apps — 84% — did so guatemala number data using third-party code libraries . Below is a table listing the 20 most common libraries:


List of libraries that are most commonly used by IAM. Note that yandex.metrica is among them

In discussing their findings, the researchers suggested that the vast majority of IAM calls made by advertising libraries are for profiling purposes, and suggested some changes to the Android platform. The main recommendation is that users should see a notification when installing a new app that requests permission to access other already installed apps. In addition, the user should be able to deny access.

And what about iOS?
Interestingly, according to researchers, Apple's iOS also uses methods similar to IAM, which allow applications to track other installed software. Therefore, experts insist that in the latest versions of the OS there should be a clear requirement that " all actions that may violate the confidentiality of the user's personal data must be clearly declared in the so-called "app manifest ". This will make it easier for moderators of software markets to verify the legitimacy of each application before publication.

As mentioned earlier, in some cases, software developers have legitimate reasons to collect data about other installed programs. However, there are reasons for concern. Therefore, you should follow the following advice: first, install only those applications that will definitely be useful to you . Second, you should give preference to paid applications rather than free ones, since the latter are more dependent on advertising revenue. At the same time, open-source applications collect less confidential data, but more often require users to give permission to install applications from third-party developers.