More Than 250 Games On Android Use Your Mic to Track What You’re Watching
More Than 250 Games On Android Use Your Mic to Track What You’re Watching: If we take a look at the previous year, we will find that the world had suffered a lot from ransomware attacks like Petya and WannaCry. In 2017, we have also seen the rise of digital assistant powered smart speakers.
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Talking about Android, it goes without saying that Android is one of the most used and popular mobile operating systems that is loved by many. Well, a majority of the smartphone nowadays runs on Android. That high popularity gives hackers a chance to try their luck.
Hackers are now targeting Android platform to spread ransomware, malware to make some money. However, have you ever thought that your own smartphones can be used to track your activities? Today we are going to shade some lights on another privacy nightmare.
Recent reports from NYTimes says that more than 250 Games on Android can track your TV viewing habits. That simply means, that whatever you were watching on your television can be tracked by hackers. More than 250 Games found on Google Play Store can track your TV Viewing habits.
If you think that Android platform is only affected, then let me tell you that such apps are also found in iOS Store. The worst thing about these apps is that it can track your activities even if they are not being played.
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All of those malicious apps were found using software from Alphonso. Alphonso is a startup company that collects users TV viewing data to sell it to the advertiser so that the advertisers could know what users love to watch.
The software provided by Alphonso usually uses your phone’s microphone to match the audio signals that came out of Televisions. The Startup company, Alphonso, claims that they have mentioned about the audio recording in its Privacy Policy and users were also notified before getting the permissions.
However, most of these apps are designed for children and kids usually don’t pay attention to permissions before granting it. So, it’s indeed a smart strategy implemented by Alphonso to trap its victims. However, the best way to avoid these problems is the double check everything before granting permission to any app.
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