Today you can have an application for everything. Transport, payments, time management and gameplay – all this can be found in Google Play and AppStore. However, are we sure that what we install on the phone is completely safe? Or maybe our phone was recently purchased with a lot of unnecessary digital junk.
Paradoxically, few people realize the risk of installing certain programs on their phones. Today we will take a look at those apps that are worth deleting as soon as possible. Some of them pose a small threat, others can be a serious problem.
Let’s start small, i.e. all the applications present on the phone from the moment of purchase. Some of them are obvious. This will be a phone, an SMS app, a browser or settings. Depending on the selected system, you will also find dedicated applications, e.g. from Google or Apple. Unfortunately, this is not the end.
Many smartphone manufacturers try to convince us that what we want and need is a system overlay. This, of course, applies to the Android world and is very irritating. Sometimes the overlays work fine, but the number of apps installed without our knowledge is terrifying. These may be unpopular wallpaper stores, additional services and other things that we will not use anyway.
If we do not use these programs, it is worth removing them – if possible, because it varies. If this option is available, be sure to get rid of unused apps. They only take up space and sometimes time when they need to be updated.
You’ve probably used free apps. No wonder, Google Chrome is free, YouTube, even Spotify and many other cool gadgets. Unfortunately, in Google Play and AppStore we can find a whole range of free programs that, on the one hand, do not work and, on the other hand, can cause us considerable harm. Let’s remember that when something is free, we can be the goods ourselves.
A perfect example is SuperVPN. The app allegedly offered users access to a virtual private network at no charge. The program was removed from Google Play in 2020 after the data of 360 million users was leaked online. These included: logins, e-mail addresses, geolocation data and IP addresses. Moreover, the company responsible for the app had unclear connections with the Chinese government.
A similar example to a free VPN is a free antivirus. In fact, some applications from renowned manufacturers are able to increase our security. Unfortunately, it often happens that these programs only create the illusion of security. In fact, the messages sent by the program have nothing to do with reality and the only purpose is to encourage you to purchase a subscription.
If our antivirus bombards us with ads more often than we would like, it is a sign that it is time to get rid of such software. Ultimately, its value is small, and paradoxically, exposing the phone to a torrent of advertising content is a greater threat than deleting the antivirus from the phone.
There is a certain group of applications that prey on basic human instincts and at the same time are very dangerous for our phone. It is difficult to describe them clearly, but usually the way they are named or described gives us the promise of fulfilling something that seemed impossible at first glance. These are all apps that “remove” ads from YouTube, pretend to be ChatGPT or allow you to check who visited your Instagram profile.
If an app offers a function not intended by its creators, e.g. Facebookand Instagram, it probably neither works nor is it safe. Here’s a short list of apps and their types to watch out for:
- Ad removal (YouTube, Facebook, etc.);
- Monitoring other people’s activity on social media;
- Premium package for free;
- Applications pretending to be other programs (e.g. GPT Chat);
- Free VPN/Antivirus;
Some mobile games are also worth paying attention to. Some of them are real Trojan horses, full of strange programs and advertisements, but not necessarily offering playability. You probably know game advertisements that praise wonderful graphics, addictive gameplay and interesting solutions. In fact, the more intrigued we are, the more the red flag should light up. Take a look at this example:
