Two Spyware Apps on Google Play Send Data of 1.5 Million Users to China

Two file management apps in Google Play Store, File & Data Recovery (com.spot.music.filedate) with over 1 million installs and File Manager (com.file.box.master.gkd) with 500,000+ installs. It was discovered to be software and was found to put the privacy and security of up to 1.5 million Android users at risk.

Although these applications assure Google Play Store that they do not collect any data of the user, in the background they transfer our data to servers in China.

These seemingly innocuous Android apps automatically launch without user input when the device is rebooted and collect our data without our consent. Data stolen includes contact lists, media files (images, audio files, and videos), real-time location, mobile country code, network provider details, SIM provider network code, operating system version, device make and model.

Some of the precautions we should take to protect ourselves from such attacks are;

• Applications whose publisher is not trusted should not be downloaded.

• The permissions of the applications we use should be checked.

• Up-to-date antivirus applications should be used on our devices.

• Check which accesses are allowed for third-party connections to your device.