The debate of Android and iOS fans is a real thing, but facts took a steep turn when an iOS advocate said in an argument that Android is pre-loaded with bloatware.
Broadly speaking there are apps that are pre-loaded on smartphones and tablet by the vendors and mobile carriers along with Android and Google’s suit itself.
No all of the softwares are useless and such apps differ vendor to vendor. These apps are often uninstallable which means they leave the user with sticking space consuming software that they might never use.
According to a study by researchers at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in Spain and Stony Book University the US analyzed crowdsourced data from 1,742 devices which were made by 214 vendors showed that bloatware can create hidden privacy and security risks.
The first discovery of the mysterious origin of the software shipping on android which totaled 424,584 and only 9% corresponded to app APKs which were found on Google Play.
The 140,000 applications which were built using 11,665 different third-party softwares and 1,200 developers and closely associated by the smartphone market.
Researchers suggest that a tool to stay anonymous in USA or any other part of the world might help the cause, but were found having a different state of opinion as to which one.
What Does that Software Do?
These softwares were found being used for advertising, social networking and finding analytics. These also involve tracking of users for commercial purposes.
Since humans are hooked and machines are learning the activities carried out by such bloatware includes; gathering location data, contacts, metadata, and behavioral data.
The analysis by researchers covered a total of 144 countries, and the team aimed to identify even the smallest possible malicious apps.
“Our results reveal that a significant part of the pre-installed software exhibit potentially harmful or unwanted behavior.”
Android users already know that their phone makers want to make a profit out of their device. Although the miss conception is that user’s hard to care if their data is lucrative for the company which when viewed a global scale is scaled to millions of people.
“Overall, the supply chain around Android’s open source model lacks transparency and has facilitated potentially harmful behaviors and backdoored access to sensitive data and services without user consent or awareness.”
The sheer volume of preinstalled apps in the Android devices has increased, thus has created new chances that some might suffer from malicious bloatware by third-parties.
Researchers suggest that there need to be reformed for better protection of the user’s privacy. Phone makers should make lists of installed softwares and check them if it has a data collection program engaged or not.
Moreover, they suggest reforming user consent to be placed into practice. Particularly before putting every preinstalled app in the device a separate agreement by the user will encourage a strong user-platform relationship.
It would be great if Android makers give users the liberty to uninstall apps that an individual barely uses. Although this won’t completely solve the bloatware problem, it will somehow give users some say in the matter.
As of now, you are buying an Android device is like holding a party for around millions of people and having a number of guests that you have never met or now even trust.