the user’s permission, the risk lies in the
event the account is hacked.
He added that TRA blocks some apps
that violate the users’ privacy such as
True Caller that is used to search for
names of callers who are anonymous to
the users from anywhere in the world.
This program poses high risk in revealing
the user’s identity, hence, it increases the
risk of fraud operations.
Dr. Moutaz Kokash, a specialist in infor
-
mation technology and cyber crimes, said
that the pursuit of smartphones by users
and their desire to own and operate them
might be one reason they install apps
without reading the terms and conditions,
which allow some apps, especially on
Android, to have access to the phone’s
address book, the user’s action on the
Internet, key places they go to and key
apps they prefer. The app then analyzes
such data, determines the consumer’s
trends, starts marketing this data to com-
panies wishing to promote their products
and sends specific ads to users.
Kokash urged users not to install any
apps on their phones unless they are
developed by recognized and reliable
programmers, indicating that in case the
user wishes to upload unfamiliar apps,
they should have full protection plan (the
not free version) which has the feature of
preventing the app access of user data
or send spam to users except with their
approval.
Commenting on the OS use of data of
smartphones’ users, Google, the OS An-
droid developed, said to mGov that by
accepting the terms and conditions of in-
stalling the OS Android and running it on
smartphones, in addition to some of the
company’s services, the company may
collect certain data of the user. It indicat-
ed that this information is not used at all
in any promotional purposes but is used
in developing and improving the services
offered which ultimately benefits the user.
Tariq Abdullah, Marketing Manager,
Google MENA, said that one of the com-
pany’s priorities is to maintain the security
of the users’ data and keep their informa-
tion always available when they ask for it.
He pointed out that the goal is to provide
easy access to security and privacy tools.
Ashraf Fawakherji, Regional Vice Presi-
dent of Huawei Device Middle East said
that with the exception of security matter
and account data of Internet users via
smartphones, many apps on the vari-
ous OS stores, especially Android rely
on recognizing the user’s actions on the
Internet and analyzing them to use such
information in sending ads.
Fady Iskander, Channel and Commer
-
cial Regional Manager, Middle East at
Symantec said that the smart apps cur-
rently collect data on the user’s actions
online and in app stores and use the us-
er’s phone, friends and email lists to send
spam, something we are used to in the
desktop and laptop world. Sites usually
use cookies that are collected by soft-
ware to know the user’s trends and send
them ads but security protection compa-
nies took notice of that and it has become
easy to control this risk through security
protection software.
He continued that with regard to smart-
phones and their operation systems, it
is still new for the protection companies
despite their prevalence among users,
especially that the majority of users do
not even attempt to read the terms and
conditions of use of each app. Disabling
the app’s collection of this data and ability
to send ads can be done through a paid
package on the app store and not free
versions.
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