Identity Theft or Cyber Attack – You Are Being Watched 24*7

Mobile, Technology, Digital Age – Mankind in past decade makes revolutionary achievements, we can’t even think of life without Google, Whatsapp, Mobiles, Facebook, Internet Banking, UPI Transactions and Ecommerce. With these advancements, comes a risk, your life is no longer personal, privacy is now a myth as you are being watched, tracked 24*7 – Your Location, Browsing behavior, Likes, Dislikes, Whom You Connect, What you Share  and Even your Purchase or Interest Behavior.
Website Cookies, Application Permissions are the Ethical way of this tracking | Malware, Spyware or Viruses are Unethical ways but in any case – YOU ARE BEING WATCHED and TRACKED 24*7.

Sometimes, when you see an advertisement on other application or browser, you miss to recall back and realize that it was something you looked for in some other app, you become excited, yes this is great, this understands what i need.  Remarketing concept of advertising publishers, Google, Facebook works on this concept too, which actually promises a customer friendly model to both advertiser and publishers. But if your mobile friend actually knows what you want and you are being watched or tracked, isn’t it a bigger risk to your privacy.

3 Easy Ways To Minimize the Risk of Identity Threat or Cyber Attack

1. Only Keep Safe, Essentially Required Apps in your Mobile:
   Apps you download seek permissions to access your calendar, camera, contacts, location, microphone, gallery, phone, sms read/sending permissions, storage etc. etc., depending on its purpose. Except essential permissions, which you believe are required for functioning of an app, skip other permissions. So if you are using an Application which is Healthcare Tracker, you can try denying the permission of Location or Contacts, as it makes little sense why a healthcare tracker needs your location or contacts. Similarly you can deny permissions for Contacts or Location to a Game App.
   By Denying Permissions, you can prevent apps from ever seeing your data in the first place
2. Sometimes while installing a mobile application, skipping the permission won’t let you install or function it properly. You are left with no choice, but to give the access. Be in habit of periodically inspecting the access permissions based on what the app actually is meant for. (To know how to manage apps permisisons in your mobile, read the last part of article)
3. Rely on Google as Your Protection Partner, as its Heart of Android OS:
   Google Play scans all of your apps to identify if any of those are potentially dangerous. Even the most trusted apps can develop flaws that hackers can exploit, so it’s a good idea to scan the apps on your phone periodically to ensure your apps are safe. Go to your Android phone’s Settings app, Tap Security and Select Google Play Protect

Manage App Permisisons in Your Mobile – How ?

Enable or Disable App Permissions one by one, its ideal tip for people who are facing threats from recovery agents and loan apps (Check Article: #operationhaftavasooli | #loanmafia Exposed). deny Access of your contacts to applications, which you feel don’t require your contact list, if they want reference guarantors, they may ask the customer, why to sneak in the customer’s private data and misuse it in loan recovery process.  

• Go to your Android phone’s Settings app.
• Tap on Apps or Application Manager.
• Select the app that you want to change by tapping Permissions.
• From here, you can choose which permissions to turn on and off, like your microphone, calender, contacts and camera.

Mobile App Access Data without Permission Even

Covert Channel is a communication path between two applications that exchange data the receiving app is not permitted to access. For example, App A is allowed to access Data A is but not App B. In such a scenario, the two apps can establish a covert channel through which App A can transmit Data A to App B.

Side Channel is a communication channel used by an app to bypass the limitations imposed by its permissions. For example, if copies of Data A are available at multiple places in the mobile, any app can access it from those locations, whose permissions are not explicit.

Typical Data Harvested by Apps
You should know which data apps generally try to store, so that they can track and profile your activities. In case you are wondering, this is so that they can insert relevant ads in the app you have downloaded. Pure business tactics, and nothing else.

Acessing Embedded Data

Much of the information is indirectly embedded in files. For example, images store location information and date of taking that image. An app interested in tracking mobile location can exploit this vulnerability to know the exact location of the user every time a photo is clicked. Which is practically many times in a day!!

CRUX – YOUR PRIVACY IS A MYTH

• Download only those apps you absolutely need
• Download trusted apps only; Google for information about the apps
• Don’t hesitate to uninstall an app as soon as you are finished using it
• If something can be done through the website, use it, don’t use the app
• Be aware, your choices and lifestyle brings some risks so if you are using Facebook, you can’t skip or avoid the chances of someone stealing your posted photos, friends. similarly every application you use, brings its own set of risks.