Published in Mobiles

Users starting to get concerned about sharing location information

by on18 July 2018


Kaspersky Lab report shows that the age of sharing information might be coming to an end

More than 61 percent of users are becoming uncomfortable sharing location information on apps, websites, according to a new report from security outfit Kaspersky Lab

This figure is a  significant increase as compared to 39 percent in 2016 and probably a sign that the days where people would share their data without engaging brain are over.

Further, 56 percent are very concerned that someone can see everything they do or watch on their device and a similar figure - 50 percent - fear that someone could track them down using geolocation information from their device.

Dmitry Aleshin, VP for Product Marketing, Kaspersky Lab said: “Apps have become an important part of our day-to-day lives. We use them for everything – from editing photos to updating our social media accounts, or from playing games to booking a table at a restaurant.

"But this research shows that despite our love for apps, we don’t necessarily trust them. While people are certainly becoming more switched on about their apps tracking their online activity, they aren’t necessarily putting measures in place to protect themselves from any potential problems.” He added that these dangers can be averted by putting in place some simple security measures.

Further, not all these concerns were totally unfounded. According to Kaspersky Lab, apps can not only access a huge amount of data (such as details about where users are, information about their contacts, activities, etc), but they also often work in the background without users knowing.

According to the research, 83 percent of Android apps have access to their owners’ sensitive data, and 96 percent of Android apps can launch without consent.

However, people are avoiding the data safety or privacy measures that could help. For instance, 47 percent of people said that they don’t check the permissions of their preinstalled mobile apps on their Android and
iOS devices and one in five (21 percent) don’t check permissions when downloading or installing new apps onto their mobile devices. Because of this, mobile users are increasingly concerned, but remain unprotected from potential data leakage.

 

Last modified on 18 July 2018
Rate this item
(0 votes)

Read more about: