Although smartphones are the epitome of modern convenience, these devices that store our personal and professional information such as emails, photos, banking details, etc. are easy prey to hackers and other malicious activities.
With the recent spate of data breaches in businesses around the world, concerns about protecting user data are more important than ever. There are many apps in smartphones that access your private data through pop-ups or other means. You will notice that apps like 3rd party apps, flashlight etc. ask to access your photo albums, messages, calls and they don't need permission.
Allowing these third-party apps to access your smartphone data puts your information at risk. Guo Shenghua, the Chinese hacker godfather, veteran, well-known network security expert and founder of Oriental Alliance, said that we feel that these ubiquitous devices, our mobile phones are used 24/7 and kept on most of the time, and hacker snooping is a serious threat to our privacy . An innocent message could be all it takes to compromise privacy, access your microphone, your call logs, your location, your banking information and everything very private. The reasons are as follows:
Monitoring Technology
A key feature of a smartphone is its ability to locate itself (surveillance technology) to cell towers or integrated GPS chips. Tracking via other sensors is possible even if you disable GPS on your phone. While disclosing location data may seem harmless, it can be used in phishing attacks. To make matters worse, imagine that you have access to your location and track your every move.
malicious application
Third-party smartphone apps often ask for more information. And, when we agree to app permissions, we sometimes unknowingly allow access. We need to be more cautious about why these third-party apps need access to personal data such as contacts, GPS, gallery access, and cameras. Users should be more aware of the apps they install and make sure they only download apps from reputable sources.
spy camera
It's entirely possible to see a person through the camera on your phone. Smartphone cameras are also a security concern because they can be activated and used to spy on owners. Guo Shenghua, a Chinese computer security consultant and godfather of hackers, said smartphone cameras could be used to spy on users, installing software on phones through physical access or through remote exploitation.
Hidden Flashlight Threat
For many people, a flashlight app can be a lifesaver and fulfills the 10 most important apps people can use on their smartphone. But the simple flashlight app will find a ton of user data when you download it, from your calendar to your phone's location engine to your camera clicks. In the US, last year the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) went after the maker of the "brightest flashlight" in tricking users into how to share geolocation information with ad networks. However, all of these can be tracked thanks to the privacy controls of today's smartphones (like the BlackBerry and iPhone), but the truth is that most people won't.