Share This
Between family and work, I don’t go anywhere without my phone. That means it’s also loaded up with apps that help me relax, multitask and just have fun when I’m waiting somewhere. Unfortunately, not all of those free apps have your best interests at heart. Many of them monitor your location, your service details and facts about other things going on with your phone. Some aren’t so invasive, but they plaster ads on your home screen and functions that can eat up your power and clog up your memory. If you’re nodding while you read this then you’ll want to check out a new Android app called Norton Spot.
click for larger view
What is madware?
- Madware, or aggressive mobile adware, uses aggressive techniques to place advertising in your Android device’s photo albums, calendar entries and push messages to your notification bar. Madware can even go so far as to replace your ringtone with an ad.
- The percentage of apps containing madware has exploded. Norton recently analyzed 1.5 million apps and saw a 210 percent increase in the number of apps including madware.
- Some of the most unsuspecting popular apps are known to include madware, such as:
- Brightest Flashlight Free is an ultra-bright app that allows you to use your phone as a flashlight. However, the app pushes alerts for things like dating sites to your notification bar – which can be annoying and potentially embarrassing.
- Zedge offers free ringtones, themes and wallpaper. Similar to Brightest Flashlight Free, it pushes alerts to your notification bar.
- Angry Birds and Angry Birds Space from Rovio are two of the top ten madware offenders.
Why does it matter?
- It’s very common for children to have their own smartphones. Or, in my case, parents allowing their kids to borrow their own. As a result, these phones are at increased risk for downloading madware. According to a recent article from the Harvard Business Review as well as the PEW Research Center:
- 6 percent of 2- to 5-year-olds have their own smartphone
- 50 percent of 11 year olds have own cell phone
- 23 percent of teens have smartphone
So how does it work?
Norton Spot is Norton’s app solution for madware. Norton Spot is an ad detector and scanner of advertising networks that can spam your device via apps you install. Within seconds it generates a list of apps that contain madware and gives you details on what info they record and if they post ads. With a one click uninstall option – it’s the fastest way to take control of your phone.
I was surprised to see which of my apps was storing (and conveying) my personal information back to their company and ad networks. I had several high level apps that were sending my personal location and phone activity to 2 or more agencies so they could target me with ads. But, with the help of Norton, I changed that. Watch this video and see just how easy it is:
Norton Spot is available FREE for Android devices – Download Now
—
I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Norton. I received a promotional item as a thank-you for participating.
