The Appthority® App Report
The Appthority® App Report for February 2013 provides an overview of the security risks behind 100
free iOS and Android apps. Appthority examined the differences between the Android and iOS app
ecosystems; compared app behaviors across five popular app categories (business, education,
entertainment, finance, games); and looked at the developers behind these apps.
Report Highlights
- The vast majority of free apps send and receive data to outside parties without encryption.
- 96% of total apps share data with advertising networks and/or analytics companies.
- 79% of the top 50 free iOS and Android apps are associated with risky behaviors or privacy
issues. Overall, iOS apps exhibited more risky behaviors than Android apps. - Entertainment apps were the worst offenders out of the top five categories, with the highest number of apps that track for location and share data with advertising networks and/or analytics companies.
- While 14% of iOS apps had access to a user’s calendar, none of the Android apps had similar access.
- More than half of the total apps track for location by accessing the device GPS or using other location tracking methods.
- More than 80% of apps across categories come from different unique, individual developers.
Read more Here (PDF 288kb) source Appthority
