Android has issued a new warning to its users.The Android has warned its users to immediately remove six applications from the smartphones. VPNpro come with this report.
The latest research by the firm has shed light on six free and potentially dangerous Android antivirus apps that have a total of 1.66 billion downloads already in the Google Play Store. Downloading these apps has resulted in putting users themselves as well as all of their precious data at risk.
The firm has issued a warning on the dangerous permissions these anti-virus apps acquire from target users, most of which aren’t even needed by such a security app.
VPNPro makes use of examples such as Virus Cleaner, Security Master and Clean Master which it says “have been found guilty of these malicious activities in the past—but are still available on Google Play and amassing millions of installs every month.”
You need to delete these free antivirus apps right now. Research shows they're asking for unnecessary dangerous permissions and could be selling your data or infecting your phonehttps://t.co/tC4FaQhY1E #cybersecurity #privacy
— VPNpro (@VPNpro) November 6, 2019
In order to function, anti-virus apps require certain permissions such as accessing the internet to scan and Abusive permissions requests for smartphone apps have now become a widespread issue VPN pro warns, “In general, antivirus apps requesting a large number of dangerous permissions can seem quite suspicious, and we recommend caution.”
These apps averaged six dangerous permission requests each which show that there are six different ways which your privacy and trust can be abused to potentially cause you harm.
Here is the list of apps and if you have any of them, it’s best if they are deleted immediately.
1. Security Master – Antivirus, VPN, AppLock, Booster (500 million installs – permissions include location, camera, contacts, audio, phone ‘state’)
2. Antivirus Free 2019 – Scan & Remove Virus, Cleaner (10 million installs – permissions include location, phone, camera, contacts, phone ‘state’)
3.Virus Cleaner 2019 – Antivirus, Cleaner & Booster (50 million installs – permissions include location, camera, phone, contacts, phone ‘state’)
4.Virus Cleaner, Antivirus, Cleaner (MAX Security) (50 million installs – permissions include location, camera, phone, contacts, phone ‘state’)
5. Super Phone Cleaner: Virus Cleaner, Phone Cleaner (50 million installs – permissions include location, phone, camera, contacts, phone ‘state’)
6. Clean Master – Antivirus, Applock & Cleaner (1 billion installs – permissions include location, camera, phone ‘state’)
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