For starters, the study “Hacker Hotspots: The Apps Most Vulnerable to Cybercrime” (apps most vulnerable to cybercrime) began by compiling a list of the most popular apps of the moment based on the number of downloads shown in the App Store in the categories of communication, entertainment and social. They determined how prone each was to hacking by determining the average number of searches that matched the name of the app with hacking-related terms, such as “WhatsApp flaw.” Once this list was established, the analysts studied the privacy policies of each of the applications listed.
Their conclusion is clear: Meta applications are the ones that collect and store the most data of their users and logically, are those which make their users most vulnerable to the theft of personal information. The TechShielder podium unites Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Google searches for hacking the social network far exceed those for all other apps. A result that is hardly surprising; with nearly 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook represents a veritable mine of potential victims for hackers.
Meta apps are the most used and collect the most personal information
Despite this glaring imbalance, Facebook isn’t the only app guilty of collecting personal information. If it’s normal for all apps to log their users’ credentials (email and phone numbers) for account recovery purposes, for example, how can you justify keeping users’ photos and videos or information from private conversations? Yet this is what between 50% and 60% of the apps in the ranking do. We should add that all these services share this data with commercial partners, which multiplies the access points to our data for hackers.
The study also looked at the geographic distribution of risk. People in the UK are apparently the most prone to data theft, followed by Mexicans, then the French. Faced with such a situation, experts recommend the greatest caution in the use of messaging services and social networks. Use a strong enough password and change it often enough. Use apps that collect the least amount of information about you. For example, the least intrusive messaging application is Telegram: it only keeps 18% of your personal data compared to 70% for Facebook Messenger. As a reminder, in 2021 alone, a hacker published the personal data of 533 million Facebook users.
Source: TechShielder