“Misty fog collected around the crumbling stone bridge where a message was hidden…”
Okay…that’s fiction.The truth is you live in a spy novel every day if you’re among the 95% of Americans who own a cell phone.
“The smartphone is probably the greatest spying device every created.You have a camera, a listening device, location tracking, all in a single device, and most of us carry it everywhere we go,” says cyber security expert Kevin Haley from Norton Lifelock.
Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report says it’s about the apps you’ve downloaded.They’re following your every move closely, making note of your purchases, preferences, routes, habits, and friends. “We need to start asking for transparency from the app authors, from these tech companies, to tell us what they’re collecting and what they’re doing with that information,” Haley tells KTRH News.
Haley says the only real protection you have for your privacy is reasonable caution when downloading apps.Though self-evident, Haley reminds that if something looks suspicious it is suspicious. If you’re not using an app delete it.
It’s not to say foreign-states aren’t monitoring you’re every move – spy agencies track cell phones as well – but for the average American it’s mobile app developers who are accountable only to bottom lines that are cashing in on a wild west mentality of consumer-driven online expansion that are robbing you of your privacy.