Robert Siciliano, an online security expert, warns that mobile apps collect and share personal data from kids and adults alike. The FTC is considering new guidelines for children's apps. He recommends downloading only from trusted stores like iTunes and Google Play, and using antivirus protection on phones to guard against malware and spyware.
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The Federal Trade Commission is developing new guidelines about these. The agency wants to change the way app developers work on products for kids. The FTC says too often parents don't know how apps for children collect data. Those apps often share that information, and many lead to other links without making that clear to parents first. But from talking to an online security expert, people of any age need to be alert to the risks of our mobile devices.
They tweeted us yesterday.
Virtually everyone uses them these days, iPads and other mobile devices. That's the only way we could do our tweet-up for toys today.
I'm gonna take a quick picture of it.
But for all the fun we have with these things, an expert says we should be careful.
Mobiles are the next big target for the bad guy.
The holiday shopping season is a great time to make us smarter about our smartphones.
Yeah, I don't think the people are up to speed that their phones are computers and that they need antivirus just like their PCs do.
That means putting the wrong app on your phone could put you in jeopardy.
And once you have those apps on your phone, essentially it could spy on your usernames and passwords, the websites you visit. And Androids overall are susceptible to numerous forms of viruses.
People wouldn't necessarily know there's some of that malware in there unless—
It usually is stealth in the background recording the websites you visit, the usernames and passwords you type in. In some situations, it can actually Use your phone to record the ambient sound from the phone's microphone. So there's a number of things that spyware can do in a mobile, and the consumer will not be aware of it.
And that's why what we're doing here, running an antivirus program, is so important to people like Siciliano.
Reality of it is, lots of people are losing lots of money every single day regarding cybercrime.
And he says it's best to download from trusted app stores such as iTunes or Google Play. You are more likely to find They are apps that have been vetted before release, as he put it. He told me the third-party sources are more likely to compromise your personal information. So
