Privacy Concerns in Android Applications: An Overview of Risks and Solutions

Android, the world’s leading smartphone operating system, powers billions of devices and provides access to billions of programs. Its wide outreach, however, is accompanied by tremendous concerns over user privacy. Quite a number of Android applications collect, store, and send data from their users perhaps without their consent, opening it to misuse. This paper analyzes the most important privacy issues of Android apps, considering over-permissioning, data leakage, tracking by third parties, and insecure data storage and communication. Based on recent trends and actual instances, we present risks to end- users. We also suggest potential mitigation approaches such as secure coding policies, permission management, and utilization of privacy-friendly tools. The aim is to raise awareness and persuade developers, users, and regulators to put privacy at the center of Android ecosystems.