The era of SMS is being replaced with data centric Applications. The mobile ecosystem players are now focusing on data hungry Application segment to drive revenue. Mobile Service providers are focusing on selling their data pipes and create auto cycled data revenue driven by Infotainment and Entertainment. On the other side many Applications providers from Retail, BFSI’s, FMCG’s, Education, Servicing and other sectors are offer mobile network agnostic Applications to increase awareness among their existing customer base and trying to capture additional one in order to propel growth and competitiveness.
The competitive environment among consumer and prosumer segment based Application providers offering lots of opportunities as well as concerns for the end consumers and prosumer’s. The two dominant Mobile OS ecosystem such as Android and iOS capture more than 90% of the Application system where iOS market share is only 14%. The iOS ecosystem is much closed whereas Android ecosystem is very open system and widely adopted by consumer and prosumer’s base.
The rampant push by Application providers through multiple means without taking responsibilities on themselves, they create Terms and Conditions favorable for them to bypass any legal liabilities on them.
Indian ecosystem is not having any regulation with respect to Applications and the following are the some of the focal assessment points for mobile device user before downloading or using any applications.
1. Read terms and condition carefully, if T&C force mobile device user to give consent for taking mobile user information or contact list information then donot accept. It may lead to exposing ones near and dear one information to Application providers. Please note that the retrieved contact information can then be used by Application providers to push unwarranted Applications to your contact list based people as well as increased pesky call and SMS. The current trend of most of the Application provider to collect mobile device user information along with other information sitting on one’s devices.
2. Before downloading any Application, please visit Application providers website and check their location. One must make sure that even though device owner give their consent to Application providers to take their primary information such as Mobile Numbers, Device Type, Requested Application for download but the information should reside in India. Most of the Application providers maintain their servers outside of India and incase of any hacking of their servers, device owners information would be exposed for security attack.
3. Before downloading an Application, Please make sure about the size of an application. If the size of Application is high then it would consume more RAM and subsequently impact the performance of device such as device slowdown, battery dranage etc. If mobile device owner decide on downloading an Application then they must check the RAM and ROM consumption on manage Application section. In the APP section, the actual size of Application would be visible whereas on screen pullover, the Running section would let you know the exact consumption done by Application.
4. Post downloading an Application, please check if Application is continuously running on the background or one can close it. If it is running continuously then there might be a chance that Application is reading all your activities and according pushing advertisement or other applications.
5. Always maintain SD card and download all new applications on SD card and it carry multiple benefits to device owners. Generally device user buying device with high internal memory and neglect in adding SD card. Directly downloading on device internal memory may expose all activities of mobile device user.
6. Post downloading an Application; please check if Application is not wrapped with other Applications. There are numerous Applications which carry multiple applications. Once device owner download particular application, he suddenly start experiencing appearance of additional application sitting on OS Tray.
7. If device owner is heavy user of social media site then please ensure that device owner clear browser history and cache on regular basis.
8. In today’s world every device users are using messaging Applications in one or another form. Please make sure that device owner cleans the conversation on regular basis. It mitigate the risk of exposing device owner conversation in case of malware or adware sitting on device and communicating with remote servers of hackers.
9. It’s a perception that Mobile security solution impacts the performance of the device but being a device owner; one must make a choice of being vulnerable or subscribe for good security solution from Symantec, MacAfee, Fortinet, Websence, Trendmicro and many more. The mobile security software is very effective in telling mobile device users about any unlawful activities initiated by Malware or Adware pushed by Applications. It is true that these security solution works continuous on the backend but it should be device owner choice to make a decision to secure their activities including financial, privacy, highly priced devices or saving few $ per annum to have a peace of mind.
10. With the adoption of mobile banking, commerce and heavy push by the companies involved in these sectors; it is imperative that today or tomorrow the adoption would increase. Any negligence on device owner end may cost them “robbery through mobile”. The indications are very clear that hackers are moving their focus from wired based connected devices such as PC or Laptop to wireless device centric. The lack of connected technology implemented created vulnerability for Mobile device owner. It would be great if device owner wakes up and initiate mitigate solution implementation else it would not be long before you can also be the target.
11. Never leave your Bluetooth enabled while you are on the move or in crowded place. Device owner may risk their information.
12. Never ever store your banking details in your device. In case of device loss or stealing or information redirect attack, device might lose such important information to unsocial person which inturn can be reused to create havoc.
13. Device owners aware of threats towards device through sleeper applications must create awareness to develop an environment of viral education. It would in turn make device owners more careful while downloading. The indirect impact would be on Good Applications investing millions of $ in Client server development fulfilling all prerequisite and there will be spike in those Application download.
14. Never ever register for multiple email accounts signed in along with the corporate email id. It would risk device owner information in case they click email attached with phishing attack.
15. Always download battery optimizer and Application cleaner as it would help device owner to close multiple running Application and inturn save battery getting drained quickly.
16. And many more and can drop queries through comment. Read more about Smartphone Review
Given the trend of Application usages and activities of many application provider initiatives to capture contextual pattern of device owner and subsequently makes million of $ by compromising device owner privacy, I consider this article as awareness one and should be pushed in viral form. If reader can develop awareness within their dear and near ones then one should consider it as social awareness drive
