Is Your Flashlight App Spying On You…Or Worse!

(Newswire.net — July 4, 2016) Fort Worth, Texas —  Some security experts are warning cell phone users that flashlight apps that they have installed on their phones may be designed to share personal data with third party marketers, or even worse, the app may be sending sensitive data to cybercriminals.

These experts warn that by installing a flashlight app on our phones, we may be unwittingly giving the application maker “superuser” access to our phones.  With this type of access the flashlight app could gather personal information to sell to advertisers, potentially access private banking information or even take control of the cell phones video camera function.

The truth is that the average cell phone owner has little awareness, and even less control, over what apps can do once we have agreed to the permissions that are part of the installation process.

For those who are iPhone users, you can be confidant that Apple has not designed this function to track your location or steal your personal data.  The built-in iPhone flashlight is part of the internal operating system of the iPhone itself.  The operating system was created by Apple and users have nothing to worry about.

For those who do want to install a third party flashlight app on their smart phone the question becomes how to do so safely.

One step is to take the time to actually read through the permissions that each individual app maker requests as part of the installation process.  If you are not comfortable with what the developer of the app is requesting, don’t install it.  There are plenty of apps to choose from, so search around for an alternative that you feel comfortable with.

For those who are Android phone users, avoiding suspicious flashlight apps is easy; simply do not install any apps from outside Google Play.

A second step that can be taken to protect against malicious apps is to install a third party security app on your phone.  For those concerned about the price for such protection, do not worry, there are a number of mobile security and antivirus apps available that are completely free.

The golden rule for all of us to keep in mind is this: when it comes to flashlight apps, or any other type of apps that we may want to install on our phones, caveat emptor.