2 Data-Sharing Apps Security Experts Say You Should Delete From Your iPhone Immediately

Lisa Cupido
·2 min read
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deleting-iphone-app
deleting-iphone-app

There are a number of apps that are well-known data snatchers. In other words: they accumulate as much personal data as they can on you and turn around and (usually) sell it to advertisers. Even though the list of great offenders extends far beyond just two, if one of your New Year’s goals is to beef up your personal tech security, Tech Security Expert Irene Graham, co-founder of Spylix, shares a few major offenders to get you started. Here are two data-sharing apps security experts say you should delete from your iPhone immediately.

Tiktok 

Why: This reservation partially stems from accounts that the platform acutely raids the privacy of its users, potentially passing on databases to the authoritarian Chinese government, according to Graham. “The app does accumulate a ton of user data,” Graham said. “And while it may not be negative, users should at least be skeptical, and ask themselves if a social media app needs to have entry to information like your hardware IDs, the apps installed on your phone, memory usage, your IP address, or your most recently utilized WiFi access points.”

IPVanish VPN

Why: VPNs, virtual private networks, rose in vogue over the previous 10 years, but they’ve been everywhere since 1996, Graham says. And they’re rather helpful — “They aim to mask your internet activity and provide privacy and facelessness by creating a confidential internet network from a public connection,” Graham said. “VPNs mask your internet protocol (IP) area, making it virtually unattainable to trace you.”

But here’s the caveat: many VPN apps aren’t safe and secure, including one of the most famous providers, IPVanish VPN. “In 2018, IPVanish was found to be logging into customers’ databases and providing them to U.S. authorities,” Graham said. “Since it was detected, IPVanish ceased the practice, but it induced many trust issues for its users, leading many subscribers to cancel their subscriptions and delete the app.”

Always be careful when you’re using apps that are known for using and misusing your data. And consider deleting these two to keep yourself as safe and secure as possible.