Are You Using These Apps That Put Your Privacy At Risk? (Stay safe with a VPN)

Mobile apps may be great for convenience but quite a few them are terrible for privacy reasons. These apps essentially take advantage of data success, and if you end up linking your Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter profiles, you will have zero anonymity left. When you click ‘I Agree’ on the terms and conditions of these apps, you are agreeing to provide your private information.

Pokemon Go

Everyone’s favorite app of 2016 has become notorious for privacy concerns as it essentially has access to your entire Google data if you sign in via Google. Its level of permission requests is quite large, and Niantic has claimed that the Google access issue was a mistake. However, this mistake allows the apps creators to read your emails, see your search history, watch your YouTube life, and essentially monitor a large part of your digital life.

Starbucks and other loyalty apps

Using the Starbucks apps is a good idea if you are a regular customer and it just makes the ordering process far easier. However, Starbucks was caught for storing incredibly sensitive data such as passwords and email addresses over HTTP rather than HTTPS. HTTPS (where S is secure) has a much higher degree of security controls than HTTP, and most apps are required to store data over it. This kind of security gaffe can even put your banking information at risk.

Any app that always needs your location

Apart from a maps app, there are very few apps that should require your location. Location is one of the most important pieces of data for advertisers as it allows them to advertise places very close to your current location. Numerous apps collect location data for no other reason than to pass it on to advertisers. You should check your location services settings to ensure that no app that does not need your location has access to it. Some apps may not run without the location permission so you may be better off uninstalling such apps before giving them your valuable location data.

Today, having a mobile VPN is arguably as important or more important than having a desktop VPN. A VPN will ensure that all your data is automatically encrypted via HTTPS, and it will make it harder for third parties to steal your valuable information. A VPN should ideally be on at all times.