Alright, before you panic, let’s all calm down and take a look at what’s going on here.
A security team named “Lookout”, who does have antivirus and anti-malware apps available for the Android platform, has said that there are a number of apps, all from the same developer, that are recording and sending out personal information from users’ devices to an unknown source somewhere in China, to include:
- browsing history
- text messages
- your SIM card data
- subscriber ID
- voicemail password (if it’s set to be entered automatically)
Is this a big deal? Absolutely. Should wallpaper apps be doing this? No way. However, there has been an unofficial response from Lookout concerning the uproar surrounding the situation, wherein Kevin Mahaffey, CTO for Lookout, Inc., states:
while the data the wallpaper apps are accessing are certainly suspicious coming from wallpaper apps, we’re not saying that these applications are malicious. There have been cases in the past where applications are simply a little overzealous in their data gathering practices, but not because of any ill intent.
While this is no justification for the problems surrounding the apps, it does clarify the possibility that this may simply be some slap-happy programming from an overly-zealous developer. Still, either way, we would recommend removing any of these apps in question. The list of suspected apps can be found here.
[via MacDailyNews]
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