3 replies to this topic

[shannonhills]

I have a Motorola android phone. I use it to connect to my exchange outlook, calendar and contacts. I use its text messaging service and browser. I don't use bluetooth, skype, facebook, weather, news or other carp** pre-knstalled apps. I want to use my phone for more purposes but I'm afraid to because all of the apps come with warnings indicating that they will have access to and possibly control over my location, account, browser, phone calls, etc. Should I just ignore these warnings and accept the fact that I will never have privacy again? Or is there some way to manage what these apps can access? I swear, even the flashlight app wants to access every part of my phone. Surely the millions of people who are using g these apps haven't agreed to such a pervasive invasion ofprivacy! Any advice you can provide would be most appreciated.

[8210GUY]

I can't be specific as I don't use Android, but I can offer some pointers, but your fears are wise and well founded. To start with each Ap needs to be judged on it's own, just because one Ap is OK, it doesn't mean another is, so you need to check out just what it means to let each Ap do certain things, but I would also say at this stage there is not too much to worry about with these situations currently, yes there are a few serious things that can happen, but for most people they would never see such things, but as time and nasty people spread around looking at new ways to mess people up etc, it's probably only a matter of time before you have to be as aware as on a pc. Ap's that ask to use positioning data, my rule of thumb is if it's an Ap to do with any kind of maps, or positioning search, eg looking for the nearest restaurant or something, then these should be allowed, otherwise it can't do what you want, but that said, if you haven't started such an Ap then deny, worst case when denying is the Ap will close, as it may not work without such data, so if that happens you need to ask yourself just what you want from that Ap, and are you happy to use it, eg it is actually something that must have such data and you need it. I have Ap's that want to use positioning data, and I allow most, but when there is something like a game, or an Ap that uses advertising to be offered as free (quite common in free versions of Ap's), then I deny positioning requests, if the Ap doesn't like it then I remove it and get something that does not use such tactics, so it's totally down to the user as to what they are happy to allow, but with my examples here I hope it gives you something that helps a bit at least. There is also a growing market in mobile protection now (only a matter of time with modern phones before they compare with pc's for protection), and for some they may find some peace of mind getting such a tool, personally I don't use such tools, not yet anyway, for now common sense is enough to keep you safe, people keep telling my wife to turn off her bluetooth due to the possibility of being bluejacked, but this is no different than hacking, unless you accept\allow something on your phone they can't do anything, I challenged someone to bluejack me one night while playing darts, 4 hours later he called me a basket (inferred polite name lol) as I didn't respond to my phones requests, so unless you allow certain things to happen, they won't be able to, but that's now, in a few months it could all change, so always be aware. A last note is check your phones settings, on mine I can set web options to do with privacy, eg cookies, clearing data on closing etc, check your phones settings for such options, if you have never looked before they will be set to the defaults I dare say, so check such options are set to your needs.

[shannonhills]

Thank you very much. That is very helpful advice.

[8210GUY]

NP, but if you have a specific Ap that you can't be sure about, feel free to mention what that Ap is, and we can try and find out more about it to get an idea of if it's good or bad, but glad the above helped.