Self-isolation, stay-at-home orders, and lockdowns have changed the way we live during the COVID-19 pandemic. As many of us work remotely, limit face-to-face interactions, and stay indoors, we are reaching for our smartphones more and increasing our mobile app use. Mobile app usage increased by 40% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2020, hitting an all-time high of over 200 billion hours of app usage in April. The average user is spending 4 hours and 20 minutes per day on their smartphones, frequently on social media.

Apps for games, entertainment, photo and video sharing, business, health and fitness, shopping, digital payments, and medical based apps all saw app usage growth since the pandemic started. As our app usage increases, so does our information sharing. We share our game scores on one social media platform. We share photos and videos on another social media platform . We even share the distance we ran or biked, and how many calories we burned. But we don't share things such as banking information, passwords, and our medical information, or do we? As we increase our app use we need to think about the risks to privacy.Privacy Concerns

Privacy is engaged from the moment a user agrees to the collection of their personal information. However, meaningful consent is difficult to obtain and users are often quick to agree to whatever privacy policy exists without reading it. To complicate things more, privacy expectations can depend on when the user made their account, last logged in, and if they read updated policies before quickly closing pop-ups to use the app.

Furthermore, some apps may store and access more private information than users would like to think. If the security on those apps are breached, unauthorized access to those apps not only exposes users' identities and contact information, but also possible auxiliary information connected to the app's use such as bank accounts, address books, photos and videos, and location data. A breached account can then be stolen, deleted, secretly viewed, or used to post or expose content without the original user's consent. A privacy attack can also prompt users to click phishing links that inject malicious code into trusted websites, which further augment security concerns and have ripple effects to other private information. These issues are particularly prominent in new apps that have yet to be tested and scrutinized by the public to reveal vulnerabilities in the app's security.

Given the vast amount of identifying and private information that may be stored and used by smartphone apps, it is important that policies clearly define privacy rights and ensure that any policies comply with applicable privacy legislation. Falling short of privacy laws can be costly. Even an app's perceived security concern can have serious implications, such as being banned on government issued smartphones.

Takeaway

Consumers, businesses, and governments need to consider whether sensitive information could be breached through an app. For example, limiting sensitive information to encrypted devices or using separate devices for non-essential apps may be a better way to secure private information and limit privacy concerns.

In a competitive app market, will the new wave of apps compete to be the most secure in their respective field or will the scales of convenience vs. privacy remain uneven?


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