Mobile Applications: Analyzing Private Data Leakage Using Third Party Connections

In previous few years, an incredible growth is witnessed in the popularity and pervasiveness of smart phones. It has also seen that new mobile applications are built day by day. These applications provide users functionality like social networking applications, games, and many more. Some of the mobile applications might be having a direct purchasing cost or be free but having an ad-support for revenue and in return these applications provide users' private data to ad provider with or without users' consent. Worryingly, some of ad libraries ask for permissions beyond the requirement and additional ones listed in their documentation. Some applications also track users by a network sniffer across ad providers and its applications. It is often ineffective at conveying meaningful, useful information on how a user's privacy might be impacted by using an application. Here in this paper, we have examined the effect on user privacy of some grossing Android applications that transmit private data of user without their permission. Using third party connections that an app makes, we defined the legitimacy of application. Also we observed some other parameter to check whether an app is stealing users' private information.