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Beware downloading some apps
Beware downloading some apps or risk “being spied on”
From 10 News
Popular apps on your smartphone can be convenient and fun, but some also carry malicious software known as malware, which gives hackers easy access to your personal information.
A security firm found that between 75 and 80 percent of the top free apps on Android phones or iPhones were breached. The number jumps as high as 97 percent among the top paid apps on those devices.
Whether these apps help advertisers target you or help hackers rip you off, you’ll want to do your homework before downloading apps, reports CBS News correspondent Anna Werner.
California’s Susan Harvey said she was a victim after she used a debit card to download a slot machine game app to her cell phone through a Google Play store account.
“It was something you purchased once, for like $15,” Harvey said.
When she went to reload the game, she found hundreds of purchases had been made — by her math, more than $5,000 worth of transactions.
“My heart sank, I just sat there looking at it… I physically, I was sick, because I didn’t know what they were,” Harvey said.
That story’s no surprise to cybersecurity expert Gary Miliefsky, whose company SnoopWall tracks malware. He said certain apps are designed to steal your personal information.