Privacy and security are on the spotlight today. People are finally starting to realize the danger behind many mobile apps. After the latest scandal involving the sharing of Facebook data with third parties, most people are now already aware of how big companies deal with our data. What people might not be aware of is — most apps with completely free features come with a hidden price, which is your privacy. There are many spying apps that monitor your online activities to sell your data to third parties without your knowledge. And those apps are the ones that can never cross your mind.
Continue reading this article to find out which apps are spying on you
Facebook Products
While this might not sound very shocking, but anything from Facebook messenger, to Instagram and Whatsapp, are not safe to use. For instance, your regular conversations on Facebook Messenger are not end-to-end encrypted. Only when “secret conversation” is enabled, your chats might be secured. But as mentioned above regarding the facebook scandal, after all, facebook products manage to monitor all your conversation and sell your data to third parties even if they are end-to-end encrypted. That’s why it’s important to use reliable messengers like Pinngle to always stay private, safe, and secure. Another thing to add is facebook’s new cryptocurrency money transfer, Libra. Since Facebook does not really have a good record in securing users’ data and privacy, your financial information could be at great risk if using Libra.
Third-Party Weather Apps
Yes, that’s right! Weather apps are the ultimate spy apps! They are the trickiest and the easiest to develop. Most third-party weather apps ask for your location, which is logical 🙄 ; however, they take your information and sell it to third-party companies for advertising purposes. Weather apps such as Accuweather was caught selling user location even when users had location setting turned off. Other apps like WeatherBug and the Weather Channel were also caught selling precise locations to third parties. And finally the most popular android weather app ” Weather Forecast” also collects and sells your location, email address, as well as your phone number to third parties. Bottom line, always check the weather manually on a browser, TV, or build-in apps to stay safe and secured.
Angry Birds
Here is some bad news to all the people who love playing Angry Birds– the NSA is watching you 👀 . Although you’ve probably heard of this scandal many years ago, if you’re still shooting birds at pigs, it’s time for you to quit. Similar to the weather apps, Angry Birds was targeted for its popularity and also because it could never cross anyone’s mind. Reported in 2014, the NSA along with the government inserted spyware to transmit users’ private information. Personal information such as age, gender, and location, are also being sold to advertising companies via Angry birds.
Dating Apps
Dating apps like Tinder have a massive and terrifying amount of information on you. Thousands of dating apps take advantage of your data and turn them into money. Those apps are usually being auctioned by data brokers. Information such as location, name, age, sex, gender interest, pictures, videos, conservation can be sold to government or state authorities if needed. For instance, Tinder is now required to share its user data with Russian authorities, according to Russia’s Roskomsvoboda internet rights group.
Fitness Apps
Another app that might shock you is fitness apps. Fitness apps are on another level! They don’t just sell your private information to third parties, they, in fact, sell your health data. Yes, you heard that right! Everything from your fitness routines, to exercise habits, diets, medical symptom searches, and even your menstrual cycles are sold to a marketing agency as well as pharmaceutical and insurance companies. Flo Health app, the digital fertility predictor for women and Azumio Inc, the AI-driven mobile health solutions are among those apps.
Thanks for this useful blog post.