Online Security 101: What should you do before installing an app?

Reading Time: 5 minutes

💡 TL, DR:

• Most applications require access permission to some features on your mobile devices.
• You should not grant permission to access confidential information such as identification number, address, or bank account information.
• Before installing an app from a reliable resource, users must check the app’s permissions and read the previous reviews.

In this digital era, we download and use hundreds of apps in our daily life. However, have you ever thought about data security before installing any app?

In this post, let’s learn everything about data privacy when using app: how much they know about you, why you should be aware, and what you should do to strengthen your data security issue.

Why should you check before downloading an app?

In “How Mobile Apps Collect Your Data And What You Should Do,” we have already mentioned that about 80 percent of apps collect users’ data and send it to third parties for analysis. There is hardly any application that takes no data from its users.

From business owners’ perspective, it’s necessary to understand the customer’s behavior, complaints that need to be resolved, etc. to boost sales. Therefore, it is totally understandable that most application providers collect users’ data.

However, it doesn’t mean you have to give full control of your phone for the app. In fact, users always have the right to check, grant, or deny permission for apps on their phones. We totally recommend you check the app’s access request for the sake of your own privacy and security. Why is it so?

First, there are many applications asking for more permissions than they’re supposed to. For example, a translation app just doesn’t need access to your Photo Library or Location. Hence, you must check the access rights carefully before downloading them to protect your privacy.

Second, malwares or harmful viruses may be included within software. The attackers may create a visually attractive app with amazing gameplay to catch people’s attention, make them download the app, then release malwares to steal data from users.

In the next section, we will dive deep into what you should check before getting the app.

What should you do before installing an app?

Choose the reliable downloading source

Most of the time, we download applications from two popular sources: App Store (iOS) and Google Play Store (Android), which is totally safe and recommended. You can skip this part if you only get the apps from these two resources.

However, there are times when you want to have an app, but it is not available on your app store’s display. What are reasons for such a limit?

There are many reasons for that: the app is blocked in your country, it is incompatible with your phone’s configuration, etc. Then, most people will take the “unofficial” approach: using third-party platforms to get the app. We recommend you not to do that.

There are two reasons for our conclusion: first, most apps on App Store or Google Play Store are tested through many strict standards from Google and Apple to be able to appear in these stores; meanwhile, on third-party sources, it can’t be sure that whether the app is tested or not.

Second, installing the apps from unofficial platforms enhances the risks of getting malwares and cyber hacking. You cannot know whether there are viruses in the app ready to attack your phone!

Lastly, if an app is blocked in your country, then you cannot get updated or save the account information on the app. No matter what you try, your data will not be kept. Additionally, if the app is incompatible with your phone, you cannot run it anyway. What is the point of having it, then?

Review the app’s permissions

If you have an Android phone, you could check the app’s permission before downloading. Surprising, right? Most people don’t know this advantage of Google Play Store.

So, this is how you do it on your Android phone:

1. Go to Google Play Store
2. Click on the app you want to install
3. Scroll down to the “Data Safety” part
4. Click on “See details“
5. You can see all access requests of the app

What about the App Store on iOS phones? Unfortunately, you cannot check the app’s permission prior to downloading it. However, if the app requires access to any part of your phone, there will be a request window pop-up. Don’t worry!

Limit accessibility to top confidential information

After checking the app’s permission, you may have known whether the app requires personal information or not.

If the answer is Yes, we suggest you reconsider if it is necessary to have this app again. In particular, these are some top-secret data you should not publish:

1. Your identification (ID) number
2. Your ID card photo
3. Your personal bank account information
4. Your insurance detail
5. Your current location
6. The address that you are living
7. Family and private life details
8. Your contact list
9. Your microphone
10. Your message history

If the app asks you too much information as mentioned, you may doubt what they are using it for, right? In part 1, we agree that corporations need users’ data for further business enhancement.

Still, there should be a border between the “data available to publicize” and the “top private” one.

Read the app’s previous reviews

On both Android and iOS phones, there are review sections that people may usually ignore. However, this is such a big problem. Review sections are where you can see how the previous users feel about the app and share their experiences.

If the app is harmful for your phone (e.g. asking too much access than needed, consuming too much memory), or so, you could know it immediately just by checking the comments. On the other hand, if the app has brilliant features, you will also know!

Most people may respond, “but service providers can hire others to write good feedback for them,” or “companies can write negative reviews for competitors to boost their own sales” – yes, they are.

However, it is not hard to realize the “real” comment. The genuine feedback is long, detailed, not bluffing, and very personalized. You can sense it immediately!

In a nutshell, you should read the reviews before installing an app to ensure that there won’t be any harmful problems to your phone later.

Final thoughts

That’s all you need to do before installing an app on your mobile device. Please be aware that doing these small steps before getting the app only takes a few more minutes, but it can help you much more than you could expect. Hence, please never forget to check the apps carefully before entering “downloading” to your phone!