Warning: Android apps collect your data without permission

After you tell an app that it does not have permission to collect any of your data, you expect that to be the end of the story.

However, a recent article from CNN says that these apps continue to collect your information even after you told them to stop. According to the article, there are thousands of apps have the ability to still collect data through hidden channels on your phone. About 60 apps were discovered to be doing this. This is potentially affecting millions of Android users. 

This was uncovered by researchers from the nonprofit research center International Computer Science Institute. They reported the issue to Google who compensated them for their work and said that the issue will be fixed in a future update.

Although the issue is concerning, apps that are taking data may not be doing so maliciously or intentionally. In some cases, apps that have permission to collect data and then stored it on the phone’s SD card. From there, apps without permission were able to access the data.

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Wrapping up

Although we do not know whether or not apps were collecting data with malicious intent, this is still a major privacy concern. Although the iPhone isn’t faring much better these days, it’s within your best interest to make sure you update your phone to avoid having your data stolen.