A survey conducted by Symantec, Norton Mobile, points out that 74 % of Brazilian yield different types of information to cybercriminals seeking financial gain. Among the examples, the study shows that users easily provide information on its geolocation, contacts, photos, passwords, device data package, showing that even legitimate applications can present security holes that can be exploited by malicious.

Research also indicates that in Brazil there are many users concerned about these types of fraud but, for the most of them, unaware of what information is being provided to application developers, compromising your privacy and putting them at risk. In addition, the survey also shows that:

•  5% know that they are giving the location of your phone developers;
• 81% of respondents did not know that applications can modify your bookmarks on the phone;
• 38% are willing to allow applications to use more battery for a free application;
• 75 % do not know that allow access to the camera and microphone smartphone;
• 1 in 5 consumers allows an application to control the use of their data package.

“Many of today’s mobile threats are located in applications for smartphones and tablets. In a total, more than 3 million and 8 million malicious applications can expose data privacy . [ … ] So, you must know that when it comes to applications, the word ‘ free ‘ rarely comes without a cost. Personal data become currency trading and how most users do not know the advantages and disadvantages of online privacy, end up exposing your information” reveals Bob Santos, Symantec ‘s Consumer Director .