What Does Your Smartphone Know About You? Antivirus Software

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What Does Your Smartphone Know About You? Antivirus Software


Even at the stage of setting up a smartphone that you just bought in a store, you allow the developers of operating systems (OS) to process some of your personal data. Next, you connect the SIM card of a mobile operator, and also install applications and so transfer the rights to dozens of companies to use information about you. Your smartphone knows more about you on average than your colleagues and friends. We will tell you what specific data is collected by OS and application developers, for what purpose, what you risk and how to use gadgets as safely as possible.



What Specific Data Do Developers Collect About Users?


Firstly, any gadget runs on an operating system, the most common are Android and iOS. Each OS developer has its own services: maps, an Internet browser, an email service, a messenger, an application store, without which it is impossible to imagine using a gadget today. When you use this or that service, you allow developers to process information about you. To process means, for example, to store, to use for analytics.



Secondly, you connect the SIM card of the mobile operator and so you allow him not only to process the data entered into the contract concluded at the stage of purchasing the tariff, but also to accumulate new data about you. Read on for a detailed breakdown of what a mobile company can do with information about you. 



Third, you install applications. Standard minimum: a couple of social networks and instant messengers, an Internet browser, food delivery service, taxi, mobile banking. Despite the fact that many people use applications much more actively: they play, monitor physical activity, sleep quality, keep track of their personal budget and have fun using some kind of neural networks like Face App. 




As a result, dozens of companies have access to data on your smartphone, they can see your location, record routes, and some even have access to numbers from your phone book.



How Is This Data Used?


The simplest thing is that companies collect customer data in order to better know who and how uses their services, based on this, to refine products and even more precisely offer their other services. 


Something less obvious (according to the VTsIOM survey, not all Russians understand that their data is somehow used in social networks): data about users is collected and analyzed in order to show them targeted ads on sites at the request of advertisers. The most harmless thing is that by allowing services to know your geolocation, you see an advertisement for a fitness club located near your home, and not in an area where you are not. Or that the social network shows you content based on the interests that you showed when you liked some pages. And the unpleasant thing is data leaks,  they can be used for fraudulent purposes. Or personal data can be used to manipulate your opinion - we recommend reading the story of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.


Another interest for developers is to use data to train their algorithms. Remember the 2016 Mannequin Challenge flash mob? When people posted a video where they freeze in frozen poses while an operator with a camera passes between them. Later, researchers at one Google laboratory were able to create an  algorithm based on these videos that estimate the location of objects in relation to each other. Entertainment applications can do the same with your data - for example, photo processing. 


When did the era of personal data collection begin? The phone that I had ten years ago also saved some information about me?


Developers of Any It Product Have Always Collected User Data. 


In the 90s, not everyone had a computer, but there was already an opportunity to use geotargeting - advertising display by location, it was configured by IP addresses. With the advent of smartphones, companies have more opportunities to get information about us. As popular services evolve, developers learn to analyze more and more data. 


If I change the settings - take away access to geolocation and photos from services - will my data be unavailable?


Not Always.


"The location of a smartphone, even if you have disabled geolocation, can also be determined by the Wi-Fi point to which it is connected, or by the base station of a mobile operator," says Artem Myshenkov, a software engineer for technical protection of information of the hosting provider Reg.


You can take away access to the microphone, photos, location from any application, but every time you want, for example, to post a story or photo on Instagram, you will have to allow access to these rights. If you are concerned about the safety of your personal data and decide to delete all photos from Facebook, this will not help, such sites have a multi-level data storage system. 


What New Can Developers Learn About Users?

More recently, companies have begun to analyze emotions and identify the psychological types of users. For example, at the beginning of 2018 Mail.ru Group introduced this type of targeting. This model, according to the company, will allow advertisers to reach clients based on their psychological characteristics.


“Back in 2017, the EmotionNet Challenge was held for the automatic recognition of people's emotions,” says Alexander Rogozin, a consultant at the Information Security Center of Jet Infosystems. “Smartphones and applications, such as Instagram, have long used such technologies. Voice assistants recognize speech in the mode online, which contributes to additional analytics of the device owner's emotions on the developers' servers. Web queries can also characterize a person and give an idea of ​​his interests, plans. All this data allows us to conduct a behavioural analysis of the user. "


They say smartphones eavesdrop on us. It's true? I see advertisements for products that I have spoken about with my friends, but have never searched for them on the web

Antivirus Software to protect your pc install it. 



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