Pub. 7 2018 Issue 9

l e a d i n g a d v o c a t e f o r t h e b a n k i n g i n d u s t r y i n k a n s a s 24 THE SECRET LIFE OF MOBILE APPS S ome of our apps are for fun things like accessing social media websites, and others are for utilitarian things like paying bills, managing insurance, or overseeing banking accounts. With apps like these having access to our most intimate details, we should closely monitor the apps we use and what these apps can access on our mobile devices. You can determine the access you give to apps by going to your mobile device’s settings. Consider the messaging application, Slack, as an example. Often used in professional office settings, Slack allows you to create groups and send messages. The mobile app for Slack can optionally access your Photos, Camera, and even Siri. Allowing apps like Slack the ability to access photos, camera, or other information is a reasonable choice since Slack uses this information to make the experience better, but other applications may not need to access this information. In light of this, let’s review the three primary pieces of information that apps will request to access. Location Allowing your apps to access your location has its benefits and its downfalls. If you want to use your Maps app, you must have location enabled. However, if you’ve enabled Facebook or Instagram to track your location, the app may make unwanted suggestions when you’re browsing the app, like asking you to rate nearby businesses. Photos/Camera Access to your photos and the camera on your device is helpful if you plan to upload and share photos on a platform like Facebook. However, apps like Amazon or Fandango do not need access to your photos or camera to be used successfully. Siri, Google, and Alexa Personal device assistants like Siri, Google, and Alexa listen to your questions, and document those and other things you have searched on your device. They try to be a step ahead to make your life a little more convenient. Allowing an app access to your assistant means the app is going to know a lot about your preferences, good or bad. These personal assistants have enabled our phones to make suggestions to us based upon our day to day mobile device activity. • One example is Browser Activity. If you search for a specific term on your mobile device, it’s extremely likely that you will see that term popup in some sort of advertisement in another app that you use. Facebook is notorious for these types of integrations, but I have personally experienced similar situations on Twitter, Instagram, and even