Research: 20 Percent of Android Apps Steal Private Data

Ed Sutherland ()

Research: 20 Percent of Android Apps Steal Private DataAbout one-in-five (or 20 percent) of third-party Android apps available through its marketplace can steal and share private user data, researchers said Tuesday. Akin to spyware, the apps can place calls and send text messages without the owners’ knowledge.

As a result of the growth of smartphones and associated stores, “applications are currently available that have the potential to cause serious harm to devices, customers and to the broader cellular network,” Daniel V. Hoffman, technology chief for SMobile Systems, an Android security vendor.

The report, although taken with a grain of salt because of the source, does cause Apple fans to reconsider their opposition to Cupertino’s oft-criticized app approval methods.

“Dozens of these Android apps — and don’t forget, there are 48,000 Android apps in all, with just under 10,000 risky ones — are able to access the kind of data that spyware likes to grab,” according to a Computerworld blog. In April, the Android Marketplace reached 50,000 apps, although it remains a far cry from Apple’s 200,000+ entries.

The cautionary report comes as an increasing number of developers see Android as a promising platform. Earlier today, we reported a survey found developers prefer Android for its openness and future outlook.

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[via Computerworld and CNET]

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About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

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  • Jon

    Whilst you’re wise to highlight the fact that the original report (have you read it – it’s a pathetically thinly veiled sales tool) was produced by a company that sells an Android security product, I think you failed to understand what they’re actually saying. Which is kinda understandable because they hype it up in order to make easy fodder for Apple bloggers and drive hits to their site.

    Android has a permissions-based security model: any app that wants to access any form of private information (eg location or contacts) has to ask for this when it’s installed and get the explicit agreement of the user.

    This report is NOT saying that 10,000 Android apps will steal your data, it’s simply saying that 10,000 Android apps request permission to access something (most often ‘coarse location’) on your phone. Wooo-hooo. If an app requests permission for something that doesn’t make sense then you deny it. This is good security.

    Your post title is not simply misleading – it’s actually wrong. Given that Apple App Store applications can silently access contact details, it’s like saying “225,000 iPhone applications steal your contact details”. Do they? No. Could they? Yes. Could an Android application? No – it can’t get to them without asking your permission first.

    (And, for the record, I don’t own an Android phone but I DO have a house full of Apple products)

  • Kupe

    @Cunty – precisely. This is a FUD article pure and simple. The difference between Android apps and those sold in the iPhone app store or Blackberry AppWorld or any WM store, is the Android apps openly tell consumers what information the about-to-be purchased app will access on the device. None of the other app distributions systems are so open.

  • Kupe

    Oops – I meant @Jon on my previous post.

  • http://richendesign.com Ric

    @Jon, thanks for explaining it so eloquently and clearly! Nice to get the facts straight! Ed, what’s up man?!?

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    Try posting more often, I like this.