ViaForensics indicated that the findings have indicated that the risk of financial or identity theft has become bigger which placed a number of users of these companies in danger.
The Android app for Netflix did not store passwords securely which made it fail the evaluation made by ViaForensics. However a spokesman for Netflix indicated that they will modify their Android apps to secure the private information of their clients.
On the other hand, the Android app for LinkedIn also failed to store app data or passwords securely. LinkedIn was also warned about their storage for the username. LinkedIn later indicated that the company will collaborate with the team from Android in order safeguard the data of the clients who are using the Android apps.
The Android apps for Foursquare also fared poorly in terms of data security. In fact that Foursquare indicated that the only time the information of the users is compromised if the Android device with no password-protection will be stolen. The company added that the company advised users to update their Android apps even if no data were reported stolen from the company.
Although the iPhone apps for LinkedIn, Foursquare and Netflix fared better than the Android apps, iPhone app of the Square mobile payment system was found to have an insecure data storage for the app. ViaForensics indicated that it retrieve a good number of data through the app.
However a spokeswoman for Square indicated that even though the service stores some data about the user, the data are normally utilized by businesses all around the globe.
Concerns for unsecured Android apps have been in the limelight for some time with the proliferation of apps that can be downloaded and utilized by consumers on their mobile phones. A year ago, researchers were able to discover a good number of Android apps which circulated the data of users without their consent.
