These apps require very dangerous permissions: some of them are apps you use daily on your phone.
A group of researchers have come to an interesting conclusion: some of the most popular apps we have on our Android phones require access to a series of permissions that are considered dangerous.
They looked at the lists of 50 of the most popular apps in the Google Play Store. This data basically indicates what features an app can access on a particular device.
The researchers described 41 features as dangerous, because these types of permissions often open the door to restricted data or actions that could affect sensitive user data.
Of all the apps they examined, MyJio is the most dangerous by far because it requires access to at least 29 of the most dangerous permissions.
It's a payment app that also lets you make payments on mobile accounts, stream music and videos, play games, and even make discounts and purchases online. Specifically, it's the app that requests access to the most dangerous permissions, the 29 listed.
Second, with 26 dangerous permissions it seeks to obtain from the device, WhatsApp is the one that requests them, which is ranked as the second most dangerous app.
In third place with 24 dangerous permission requests is TrueCaller.
In fourth place is Google Messages, followed by WhatsApp Business. Both are seeking approval for 23 critical permissions.
Finally, among the controversial apps is Facebook, which is seeking approval for 22 dangerous permissions.
- These are the most dangerous permissions requested by apps
The most dangerous permission the apps they examined asked for was to send notifications. “The simplest way to exploit notifications, which are often abused by malicious apps, is to bombard users with unwanted ads, phishing links, or even misleading information.”
The second, more dangerous permission is to request access to storage outside the app directory. This is because with this permission, apps will be allowed to access, for example, some of the photos we have stored on the mobile phone.
Other dangerous permissions are access to the camera or microphone.
This research is an example of how even the most popular apps on the market can eventually become dangerous depending on the type of permissions they request.