Researchers have discovered 11 Android apps that secretly collected sensitive data from users and supposedly shared it with the US government. It involves 11 apps that have been downloaded millions of times each and Google removed them from the Play Store.
11 apps violate your privacy
According to an report of two American researchers from the internet security company AppCenus, there are 11 popular apps that have unlawfully collected user data. This is due to code that collected data without users’ consent.
The apps registered, among other things: the contents of your clipboard, your phone number, email addresses and location. Each of these apps has been downloaded more than a million times and the three most popular apps have been installed more than 10 million times. The data ended up on the servers of the American company Measurements Systems, which is linked to the American government. The US buys such data from commercial companies, according to the researchers, and the data is used by defense and intelligence services. It is not known whether the US misused the data of these apps in question.
Remove these apps
Google has since removed the apps from the Google Play Store when it had contact with the security researchers in October 2021. However, these apps can still collect your data as long as they are installed on your phone. It concerns the following apps:
- Speed Camera Radar: more than 10 million installations
- Al Moazin Lite (Prayer Times): more than 10 million installations
- WiFi Mouse(remote control PC): more than 10 million installations
- QR & Barcode Scanner: more than 5 million installations
- Qibla Compass – Ramadan 2022: more than 5 million installations
- Simple weather & clock widget: more than 1 million installations
- Handcent Next SMS Text w/ MMS: more than 1 million installations
- Smart Kit 360: more than 1 million installations
- Al Quran Mp3 – 50 Reciters & Translation Audio: more than 1 million installations
- Full Quran MP3 – 50+ Languages & Translation Audio: more than 1 million installations
- Audiosdroid Audio Studio DAW – Apps on Google Play: more than 1 million installations
Although Google has removed the apps, some apps have been allowed back in the application store after the code in question was removed. The researchers also rechecked the apps and found that they no longer secretly collect data.
Recently, Google has also been criticized for not collecting data in a transparent way with its Messages and Phone app. Did you have any of these apps on your phone? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of this article.
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– Thanks for information from Androidworld. Source