Cell phone users warned over info-stealing apps
By Zhao Wen |
November 7, 2012, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
MOBILE phone users are being warned against downloading multi-functional apps after a survey found that more than 40 percent of respondents reportedly had their personal information leaked through the mobile applications.
The survey, conducted by China Youth Daily and mobile job search engine Daguu.com, interviewed 4,381 verified users across China. More than 90 percent were in their 20s and 30s with a keen interest in new digital products and fancy mobile apps.
The survey said 41.7 percent of the respondents had lost their personal data through mobile apps. Among all types of information, phone numbers were the most frequently accessed as some apps can secretly copy user's contacts, which is then sold to seedy businesses that send junk mails or make scam calls.
The survey found that 40.7 percent respondents never read authorization agreements carefully after downloading an app and 35.6 percent had a low level of risk awareness when using mobile apps.
"Mobile phone users are more focused on functions of applications than on information security," Jia Chunfu, director of the information security department with Nankai University in Tianjin, told China Youth Daily.
"As a result, app developers pay more attention to new functions and care less about the security issue of their applications," Jia added.
According to the survey, only 53.6 percent of the respondents had installed protection software to prevent information leakage.
Up to 72 percent phone users thought the current mobile apps had too many requirements for authorization such as automatically using paid services, visiting information in the contact books and monitoring phone records.
Nearly 85 percent users said they would stop using the app if they found it was stealing information from their phones.
The survey, conducted by China Youth Daily and mobile job search engine Daguu.com, interviewed 4,381 verified users across China. More than 90 percent were in their 20s and 30s with a keen interest in new digital products and fancy mobile apps.
The survey said 41.7 percent of the respondents had lost their personal data through mobile apps. Among all types of information, phone numbers were the most frequently accessed as some apps can secretly copy user's contacts, which is then sold to seedy businesses that send junk mails or make scam calls.
The survey found that 40.7 percent respondents never read authorization agreements carefully after downloading an app and 35.6 percent had a low level of risk awareness when using mobile apps.
"Mobile phone users are more focused on functions of applications than on information security," Jia Chunfu, director of the information security department with Nankai University in Tianjin, told China Youth Daily.
"As a result, app developers pay more attention to new functions and care less about the security issue of their applications," Jia added.
According to the survey, only 53.6 percent of the respondents had installed protection software to prevent information leakage.
Up to 72 percent phone users thought the current mobile apps had too many requirements for authorization such as automatically using paid services, visiting information in the contact books and monitoring phone records.
Nearly 85 percent users said they would stop using the app if they found it was stealing information from their phones.
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