Roskachestvo has revealed that unjustified requests for access to phone functions and the use of a large number of advertising trackers are the main threats in popular mobile applications available for download in Russia. The study examined 22 applications from Google Play, including services, games, and utilities.
Experts noted that even applications with simple functionality require dozens of permissions. The leader was the program "cloning" service Ultra Space, which requested 170 permissions, including access to calls, contacts, camera, and background geolocation. KLWP wallpapers request 51 permissions, including the phone book.
Many applications function as advertising aggregators. The weather application "ПогодаВеры Русский" contains 28 advertising trackers (Google, Yandex, Amazon, and others), and the No WiFi Games game collection contains 13. Experts emphasized that the business model of such applications is based on the monetization of users' personal data. The two most dangerous scenarios are applications with many trackers and permissions, when data is immediately transferred to advertising networks, and applications with a small number of trackers but a huge number of permissions, when the developer collects the data themselves.
Roskachestvo advises carefully studying the requested permissions before installing applications and comparing them with the stated functions. For already installed programs, it is recommended to regularly check and restrict access to background geolocation, camera, microphone, contacts, and SMS.