Lookout Mobile Security has found that advertisements deployed within mobile applications are increasingly becoming more invasive and are accessing “personal information (including email, phone number and name) without clearly notifying the user.” To make matters worse, Lookout says that many of these ads “use aggressive mobile ad delivery techniques that can confuse users, like changing bookmark settings or delivering ads outside the context of an individual app.”
So far, Lookout says that such practices are fairly limited and account for just 5% of apps that use in-app ads, although the firm notes that this relatively small percentage still accounts for around 80 million app downloads.
The company notes that the worst offenders in employing aggressive ad tactics are personalization apps such as mobile wallpaper apps, as 17% of those apps used ad networks that violate user privacy. Other app types that are more likely to employ aggressive ad networks include entertainment apps (8%) and games (7%).
