CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Our phones are full of them – apps that make our lives easier, our photos brighter and keep us connected with friends and family.
But with convenience comes a cost.
“Do you think that Americans are fully aware of how much these apps have access to?” Queen City News asked one cybersecurity expert.
“No,” replied Vice President of Business Operations at Nord Security Gerald Kasulis.
Instead, Kasulis suggested going through your settings.
“Go through your location settings,” he said. “Go to your privacy settings, the type of permissions you grant to the applications, and I could guarantee you that most of us would be surprised by going into those type of permissions and checking what permissions we give to the application and will be surprised. That’s alarming.”
In a recent study conducted by NordVPN, the online security company found that three-quarters of mobile apps are collecting more of our personal information than is needed for the technology to function properly.
In the research, the company found the music-streaming app Pandora and video-sharing app TikTok to be the most intrusive.
“So, fair enough,” Kasulis said.” If you are selling my data, there needs to be a monetization of some sort behind it.”
