The Hidden Costs of "Free" Apps

Most Smartphone users know that free apps are often filled with advertising to make-up for the potential revenue lost from a user not paying for the application. While these ads allow free apps to exist they are also rather annoying and distract from any actual content. However, it is not well know that they could also pose a risk to your beloved Smartphone and possible even yourself.

Purdue University in Indiana recently released a study that revealed one of these risks. The paper states that only 10 to 30 percent of the power used in ad-supported apps are actually used for the core function of the software. This means that 90% of the power an app uses is wasted, which is a huge problem for Smartphones with short battery life, so where does this waste go? Well, advertising accounts for most of the power used as the app finds and downloads advertisements. Other usage including wakelock bugs (energy bugs) that derive from advertising libraries which are created by third parties to make adding ads to an app easy for the developer.

These advertising libraries also hold other risks, as revealed in a paper from the North Carolina State University, which notices that these libraries can grab code from remote servers which allows for the installation of malware onto your Smartphone and could allow hackers to get access. Another feature available to advertisers on around half of the libraries is the usage of GPS which allows the access and ability to track the location of users.

Perhaps with this information in hand more users will pay for the non-ad versions of apps from now on?

[Eden Crow|@EdenHJCrow]