The Privacy Advisor feature advises you about safety of all the apps installed on your devie based on the device permissions they have.
It detects those applications that collect your personal information such as usernames, contacts, and passwords. You also get notifications about the applications on your device that can send SMS, call people, or access the Internet without your knowledge.
Overall, it helps you monitor various permissions granted to every application such as Access to Google Accounts, Access to Contacts, Read Identity Info, Tracking Location, Access to Messages, and Access to Network.
You can modify the permissions using Privacy Advisor as it flags applications in three risk types:
- High Risk Applications: These apps collect your identity and personal data and its misuse may cost you money or these apps can act as spyware to spy on your activities.
- Medium Risk Applications: These applications collect sensitive permissions, and you may risk your privacy by allowing these app permissions.
- Low Risk: These applications collect permissions which are not risky for your device.
- Trusted Applications: These applications are flagged as trusted by you which you consider safe to use.
Configuring Privacy Advisor
To configure Privacy Advisor, follow these steps:
- Open Quick Heal app
- On the Dashboard, navigate to Privacy Protection > Privacy Advisor. Tap Privacy Advisor.
- The applications are displayed with all the permissions that are assigned to them along with the risk category they fall in such as High RIsk, Medium Risk etc.
Viewing app permission
To view the permissions that an app is assigned, follow these steps:
- Open Quick Heal app
- On the Dashboard, navigate to Privacy Protection > Privacy Advisor.
- Tap either of these permission categories: High Risk Applications, Medium Risk Applications or Low Risk Applications. The list of applications for that category appears.
- Tap the application for which you want to view/modify the permissions. The permissions are displayed.
- If you find that an app uses any crucial information, you can uninstall that app by tapping Uninstall App.
- If you find the app trustworthy, then you can trust the app by tapping Trusted App and in confirmation screen tap Yes. This app will be added to the Trusted Apps List.
Below are the various permissions that an app may be using:
| Permissions | Description |
|---|---|
| Access to Google Accounts | Apps with this permission may request authentication credentials of the Google account. Such apps may add or remove accounts and delete your passwords. |
| Access to Contacts | Apps with this permission can read, write, and share your personal contacts with their servers & compromise your data. |
| Read Identity Info | Apps with this permission can share phone state including IMEI number, phone number, and serial number of the phone to their server without your consent. |
| Tracking Locations | Apps with this permission can update your device location to their servers, which may be harmful. |
| Access to Messages | Apps with this permission are allowed to read, write, or send SMS from the device. Malicious apps may read your confidential messages or delete them before you receive them. |
| Access to Network | Apps with this permission allow to share network usage in the background with their servers. |
| Other Permission | Apps that have permissions other than those mentioned above are available under this category. |