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Malcore scans files and programs for risks and malware.
2.5 points are allocated for each tracker or token found to arrive at a final score out of 100. Code analysis result severity warnings are assigned 0.05, code analysis high severity warnings are assigned 0.15, suspicious permissions are assigned 0.075, and dangerous permissions are assigned 0.25. permission. The higher the score, the greater the assumed risks and permissions, some of which may not be required to operate the app.
“Most applications need a score to work. A safe zone of less than 30 is usually good,” said Internet 2.0 co-founder David Robinson. Australian Financial Review.
“The Malcore scoring process is about giving consumers visibility into what accesses and data are being accessed across industries.
“We hope that by making these public, social media companies will only access data that works, keep their source code up to date, and reduce the amount of data they sell to the ecosystem.”
Viber scored the riskiest at 46.7 out of 100, with 11 trackers found including Google and Snapchat.
Overall, Telegram scored 17.2 out of 100, including Huawei and Google trackers, and encrypted messaging app Signal, which has one tracker from the Google ecosystem, scored 21.8.
Almost every app had a Google tracker, but Robinson said it was surprising to find a Huawei tracking token on Telegram.
“Telegram has established itself as a secure messenger app for communicating outside the surveillance of the dictatorship (Russia). It makes you question the application,” says Robinson.
“To see what data is being sent to Huawei, we need to conduct dynamic analysis with manual source code reviews.”
Huawei’s trackers are problematic because China is working with Russia and many Ukrainians used Telegram during the Russian invasion, he said.
“It’s openly used. It’s a standard development operation feature. The point is that data is going back to China and Huawei,” he said.
China’s National Intelligence Law of 2017 requires organizations and citizens to “support, support and cooperate with the state’s intelligence activities.”
The law was a key consideration when the Australian government banned Chinese telecommunications companies, including Huawei and ZTE, from supplying equipment for the deployment of 5G cellular networks in 2018.
democracy movement
An automated bot response from Telegram said the app is committed to protecting user privacy and human rights such as freedom of speech and assembly.
“[Telegram] It has played a key role in pro-democracy movements around the world, including Iran, Russia, Belarus, Myanmar and Hong Kong. ”
Telegram founder and owner Pavel Durov left Russia in 2014 after he lost control of his former company for refusing to hand over data on Ukrainian protesters to security services, according to an automatic response. said.
Among the popular messaging apps, surprisingly, Facebook Messenger scored the highest with 14.05. For this he had one tracker. Whatsapp owned by Meta had a score of 26.25 and had one Google tracker.
“Because they have more resources to maintain code maturity, [Facebook] It doesn’t include Google’s ecosystem tracker, it’s just part of the Facebook platform,” Robinson said.
For all messaging apps, Robinson said users should be able to turn off permissions to various data from the phone or request that they be used only when the app is in use.
He warned that users should be aware of the permissions they grant to apps and be careful not to use the default “allow all access” that apps often ask for.
“[Users should] Remove apps you don’t currently use and know where your applications are headquartered. Applications based in China and Russia may score lower, but they still have to comply with authoritarian governments, which puts the data that certain apps have access to more at risk. ”
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