I've heard a lot about spyware, phishing, and viruses, how do I protect my phone from these?
To prevent these forms of Malware from interferring with your device's performance, make sure to do some research and use discretion when installing applications, and do not open emails from senders you are unfamiliar with or go to websites that seem fishy!
The Google Play Store is an open market. This means anyone with some coding knowledge can get approved to add an application. While this creates an exciting, open development platform, it also means that sometimes applications are buggy, aren't quite designed right, and in the worst case scenarios were created for malicious purposes.
Not to worry though! Keeping your phone safe from these rogue applications and application developers isn't hard to do. It just requires a little research and investigating before installing the application in question.
What to Look For
Before installing an application from the Play Store, one should always Check the Rating. Did the application get 4 or 5 stars? This is a good indicator it's a good one. However, be cautious to make sure that there are also some comments with those ratings. If their are no comments available, you may want to check and Android Forum or just stay away!
Be sure to Read Lots of Comments and do not just look through the first four or five. Go back a few pages and see what the comments the developers didn't feature are saying as well.
When installing the app, make sure to Check the Permissions. Make sure to read through the information the application is requesting access to. With newer versions of Android, you can actually turn off permissions you don't agree with. Keep in mind doing so may cause the app to misbehave. The good developers also include reasons for why they are requesting the permissions now in the application information section. If something seems questionable, be sure to check this out.
When in doubt, use other tools at your disposal and Check Android User Forums. Typically, just searching an application's name in Google should pull up some results. See what others are saying here!
If you're uncertain about an application or think it doesn't look professional or on the up and up, be sure to visit the Developer's Webiste. Often, you can tell from here if this developer is established and has been in the business for a long time, or if they slapped their webiste together in under five minutes. If something doesn't seem right here, don't install the application.
REMEMBER: If any of these points make you feel uneasy about the application Don't Install it! There are tons of apps to choose from!
What then?
After installing an application, be sure to leave your own rating and feedback in the Play Store! Be a good cell phone citizen and help others find that awesome application you love or avoid one that caused your device trouble!
