Top 3 Apps with High Security Risk

Imagine a day without your smartphone! How will you listen to music? How will you call a cab in the morning or pay at the restaurant in the evening? Today, life truly seems difficult without a smartphone loaded with different apps. But do you know these applications are putting you at huge risk in terms of monetary loses? A report from Appthority states that about 83% of popular smartphone apps are associated with privacy and security issues. Here’s where the risk lies:

Given here is a list of three apps that are useful yet risky and need to be handled with utmost care (Courtesy – The Motley Fool)

• Facebook: Sounds shocking, isn’t it? FB is surely an app you can’t do without. The day Facebook started allowing users to store credit card details on the social network directly, it became a risky app to use. With this app you can auto fill credit card information when buying anything on Facebook.

Anyone who has access to your phone and can retrieve your Facebook login information can start misuse the information. This can result in fraud and identity theft. There is also the risk of your FB account getting hacked.

To save yourself from all these risks, you can do several things like logging out of emails and social networking sites when not in use and never storing passwords and credit card details on your phone.

• Starbucks: It is a lucrative app for all those who prefer to pay for their purchases through their phone. Anyone signing up or using the app gets various perks. The Starbucks app stores vulnerable details like passwords, usernames, and other sensitive information in the form of plain text. It is different from encrypted data storage, which adds a layer of protection to it.

• TabbedOut: This is an app that allows you to pay bills at restaurants or bars. It is possible to make money transfers to your friends. This app also stores credit card details on the phone, which is risky. Once your phone is stolen, be ready to get huge credit card bills if you do not lodge a stolen report immediately.

So, the next time you opt for an app in your smartphone, make it a point to see the flipside of it too.