Worst case scenario for Android users: an app started recording users secretly. As we all know, after being downloaded, some apps have the ability, in one way or another, to do what they want. How’s that possible?! Of course, such things are rare, but they are still happening. Can we stop these intrusive apps once and for all? Here’s what happened recently.
According to Ars Technica, an Android recording app named iRecorder Screen Recorder turned out to be quite dangerous. Following an upgrade back in August 2021, the app started capturing a minute of audio every 15 minutes and sent the recordings to the developer’s server through an encrypted link. As shocking as it might sound, let’s try to imagine a bit how the iRecorder Screen Recorder users should’ve felt after they learned about the incident.
What are your thoughts about such things? Have you ever experienced something like this with an app?
The recent incident with iRecorder Screen Recorder has been carefully documented and is now discussed by researcher Lukas Stefanko from ESET (Essential Security against Evolving Threats). You can read the whole blog post here.
According to Stefanko, iRecorder Screen Recorder had been downloaded 50,000 times. He also explained how apps that came with AhMyth had previously gotten past Google’s restrictions. Apparently, some apps start to turn shady after you’ve downloaded them for quite some time, and you actually forgot about them. Such apps start using the rights you allowed them at the beginning to gather private data from your smartphone. Everything collected would later end up to the creator for illicit purposes.
The good part is that Google is always working on upgrades, some of which will notify you periodically which applications have altered their data-sharing policies. So, to avoid such privacy issues or other malicious stuff, make sure you update your device every time a new software version is available!