They warn against massive monitoring via pre-installed apps on Android

A survey conducted in Spain revealed that Android phones control their owners without their knowledge and mbad access to their personal data via a large number of preinstalled applications that can virtually not be removed from the equipment.

The results of the study titled "Analysis of preinstalled Android software", conducted by the Imdea Networks Institute and the Carlos III University of Madrid, were published Monday by the Spanish Agency of Protection data (AEPD) because of its "impact". mbadive "on the privacy of citizens", explains the entity in a note.

The work badyzed more than 82,000 pre-installed applications in more than 1,700 devices with the Android operating system, made by 214 brands.

Almost all manufacturers have detected a type of pre-installed software using the user's privileged access to system resources to obtain personal data, according to the study cited by EFE.

The researchers concluded that there is a complex system of developers and commercial agreements with pre-installed applications with licenses (which do not match those of Android) to provide access to their services without an average user being able to access them. uninstall.

The problem is that there is "no transparency" on the activity of applications that the user does not have the ability to uninstall and that are predetermined with the terminal, explained one of the authors of the research, Narseo Vallina-Rodríguez, from IMDEA Networks. .

Sometimes the phone user may have given his consent to access a service, but in other cases he may not be aware of the evolution of his personal information, Vallina said -Rodriguez.

According to the study, "a large number of actors" could directly obtain benefits by accessing this user data, for commercial purposes or by selling them at any time. other agents in exchange for money.

Among these, there are companies that go from manufacturers to operators, through social networks, multimedia companies, video games and antivirus, among others.