Take a minute and just go through your inbox. I am quite sure you will find a couple of phish-mails lurking there. There are at least two mails sitting in my inbox, one saying in the subject line that the credit card I had supposedly applied for has been approved and the other saying that a loan I had also ostensibly sought has been sanctioned.

Let us hope that you know all about phishing — where you are tricked into clicking on a bogus email link — and consider yourself savvy enough not to be fooled. But there is another backdoor, which you may not have considered, and that is your apps and permissions you grant to apps when you install them on your phone.

When you sign in to an app, it will ask you whether you want to create a new username or password or log in with your Facebook, Google, or Twitter account. I bet you would have accepted to do the latter, thereby opening up the app permission hole. Mobile apps have now become a new arena for cyber crime. It is not only about malware and phishing scams. You sign your own warrant by allowing your data to be hijacked when you give permission to random apps.

Most free apps usually have libraries where data collected from using the app is stored. This information, which includes your contact lists and location, are shared with third parties to be a target for ads. When you install apps, they declare their permissions. They don’t request permissions. Permission is where the app tells you what kind of personal information the app wants and the methods of getting this information. You accept it or leave it. Unfortunately, most people don’t read this; they just scroll down and accept it all. You can see a list of these permissions when you install apps from Google Play or a third-party app store. Tap on each type of permission to get more detailed information. 

So what do you do now? Android allows you to view the permissions of your installed apps. To do so, go to Settings and check the permissions you have granted the apps. Tap an installed app in the list and scroll down to the view the permissions it requires. Revoke as many permissions and you can and do it on a regular basis. Remove anything that you don’t use and anything you don’t trust. In iOS you can go to Settings and click on the name of the app and you can see what permissions you have granted.

On your computer, go to www.facebook.com and click on the question mark on the top right. Click on Privacy Check-up. On the following screen, click on Next and remove the apps that you feel don’t require your Facebook information. In Twitter, go to ‘Settings and privacy’ by clicking on your avatar next to the tweet button on the top right. On the list on the left find Apps. Click on it and click on Revoke Access to anything you don’t remember or need. Similarly, go to https://myaccount. google.com/security and click on Connected apps and site’s and manage the permissions there.

Data collected from you without you knowing about it is one thing. But be careful that you don’t become a consensual victim.

Send in your computer-related problems to askdoss@abpmail.com with TechTonic as the subject line