Are your apps secretly stealing your data? FBI issues massive warning for iPhone and Android users

United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released a Public Service Announcement (PSA) warning users about the dangers of installing some potentially dangerous apps on Android and iPhones. In the announcement, FBI warned about the risks associated with downloading foreign developed mobiles apps, especially those based in China.

For instance, the Article 7 of China's National Intelligence Law states, “All organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts in accordance with law, and shall protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of.”

Meanwhile, another Article 14 notes, “National intelligence work institutions lawfully carrying out intelligence efforts may request that relevant organs, organizations, and citizens provide necessary support, assistance, and cooperation.”

FBI also warned users about what data that these apps request upon downloading. Once the access is granted by the users, FBI says the app can “persistently collect data and users' private information throughout the device, not just within the app or while the app is active.”

What data can Chinese apps collect?
FBI says that some platforms can also offer the option to invite friends or contacts to the use the apps. This could entail the developer companies to store collected data on users' private information and address books such as e-mail addresses, user IDs, physical addresses, and phone numbers of their stored contacts.

“This permission gives the apps access to a host of personal information belonging to both users and non-users in their contact lists.” FBI noted

Another risk that FBI shared was about where the data of users is stored. The agency notes that privacy policy of some apps explicitly state this collected data is stored on servers located in China. While other apps allow users to local, cloud-free version that prevents data sharing. Some other require users to consent to data sharing in order to operate the platform at all.

A third area that FBI warns is about some apps containing malware which could even go on to collect data beyond what is authorized by the users.

“This could include malicious code and hard-to-remove malware designed to exploit known vulnerabilities in various operating systems and insert a backdoor for escalated privileges, such as enabling the download and execution of additional malicious packages designed to provide unauthorized access to users' data” FBI warned

FBI went on to warn that downloading these apps from unfamiliar websites or third-party apps stores runs a higher risk of embedding malware. It noted that official app stores scan for malware content which potentially reduces the risk of malware or malicious code coming to the mobile devices.

Disable unnecessary data sharing permissions within app settings.

Only download verified apps from official app stores.

Read the terms of service or end-user license agreements before downloading.

Perform regular device software updates.

Change and update passwords regularly.