Talking FACS
Host: Dr. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Director for Family and Consumer Sciences Extension, University of Kentucky
Guest: Kelly May, Senior Extension Associate for Family Finance and Resource Management
0:00 Welcome to Talking FACS; what you need to know about family, food, finance and fitness. Hosted by the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program, our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families and communities to improve quality of life.
0:20 Dr. Hunter: Hello and welcome to Talking FACS. This is your host, Dr. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Director for Family Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.
Today, I'm pleased to be joined by, Kelly May, our Senior Extension Associate for Family Finance and Resource Management. Thank you for joining us today, Kelly.
0:37 Kelly May: Very excited to be doing this.
0:39 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: So, today's topic, I think, will be a fun one for our listeners that you're going to share with us about smartphone apps and learning more about how we can use apps to protect ourselves for our safety, but then also how just as consumers, we can utilize the apps to make everyday living a little bit simpler.
1:01 Kelly May: Not just safety apps but all your apps. I wanted to talk about making sure you download apps safely so that it's not malware in disguise. I think a lot of times, we don't think of our phone as a computer, but they very much are computers these days. So, it's important to keep your system software and your apps and your programs all updated and your browsers too, just for security concerns, so nobody gets a hold of your information.
But also, it is important to check out the apps before you download them. I know a lot of times, we're tempted by new and glittery things and things that are recommended to us in our other apps. But it's important to check these things out before we just go download them and have them all on our phone.
1:46 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: And I think that that's kind of a good reminder for us all because I know personally that sometimes I'm out and I'll see an app advertised or someone will say something about it and I'll just kind of look it up real quick in the App Store and think, “Oh, I'll download that and check it out later.”
Or especially with my kiddos, they'll say, “Can I have this app?” or “Can I have this game?” and I'll look at it to make certain that it's age appropriate and that type thing. But maybe not doing enough due diligence to really think about what it is that I'm downloading to my phone or my smart device.
2:18 Kelly May: Right. It's really easy to get caught up in “What is the thing that is going to help me do” and not pay attention to “What might it be doing to me behind the scenes.”
And that's why this becomes a money topic too because any kind of computer safety or cybersecurity issue is also a money issue because that's what we're protecting is our identity in our ability to access our funds and our cash.
So, most of us have our credit cards somewhere on our phone. We have a bank account somewhere on our phone; either in our ride sharing or pickup app or in a shopping app or in something where we've agreed to be able to purchase something in the app.
2:56 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Right.
2:57 Kelly May: It's going to be on there somewhere.
2:58 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Oh, I could think of several places on my phone where I have financial data stored for sure.
3:03 Kelly May: Exactly, so we need to make sure that we're keeping our phones password protected, so that information is kept private just for us. But also, that we're downloading apps that are safe to use and that we're not putting that information into something that's dangerous or an app that could be spyware or malware, which is software that looks like it's going to be something fun or beneficial, but actually has secret programs running in the background that want to extract your information or give it to another source. So, we want to guard against those things.
3:35 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: So, as a consumer, how can I protect myself from a “bad app”?
3:41 Kelly May: Okay. So, the best way to protect yourself from a bad app is to do your research. Like any good investigative attempt, you just want and start poking around and check it out; maybe not just in the app itself. Of course, the app is going to say the app is wonderful. Right?
3:58 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Exactly.
3:59 Kelly May: So, we want to poke around on the Internet and find out, “Okay, who develop this app? Where's it coming from? If it's free, why is it free? Is that too good to be true or are they showing ads or something where they get some benefit out of it too? How many times has it been downloaded? That kind of shows whether other people are trusting it. How long ago was it published or updated? If it's kind of old and nobody's ever looked at it again, are they really concerned about your security if they're not keeping the updates fresh?
Like with phishing, if there's any spelling or grammar mistakes in the descriptions that might be a clue that you might want to steer away from that one.
Also, check out the reviews. But I mark reviews with a grain of salt when you're reading those. You want to know that people can be paid and people's opinions can be bought. So, sometimes testimonials aren't a good track record for how well something is doing, but they can be a good indicator.
So, if they all seem to be very positive and they all kind of sound the same, they might not be real; they might be fake. So, those are the reviews you might not pay attention to.
Reviews that come from real people are going to be some good, some bad; hopefully more good than bad. But it's an even better sign if the developer, the app company, is responding to those emails; especially the negative ones.
They might respond to a positive one and say, “Thanks for your feedback. I'm glad you like it.” And if it's a negative one, it's going to be a better app if it's probably somebody responding in, “Well, we'll have our team look at that. Thanks for bringing that to our attention.”
5:29 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Right. So, that you know that they're monitoring.
5:31 Kelly May: Right. So, you know that they care about you and they're working on improving the product they're offering.
5:36 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Reviews are something that I like to look at because I do like to see what people are saying. But then I also always kind of have in the back of my head of, “Is this real? Is this not real?”
So, I do like some of the things that you said there in terms of looking for different statements or just different writing styles of how people might write or talk differently that that kind of comes out in the review as well.
So, I think that it's, like you said, a great tip but also a word of caution of recognizing that not all reviews may be real.
6:07 Kelly May: One other thing you should pay attention to, anytime you download an app, is what permissions does this app want from you? And I know it comes up in this big legal-looking list that's a little bit intimidating and you might not know what all those permissions do, but it is important to look at that and to read that and see what exactly is this app going to be able to access on your phone because that's where somebody else could, through a backdoor entry, get a hold of your information.
So, if you're looking at the permissions that come up, some of the things you might wonder about are, “Does this app really need to know your location or access to your calendar?” Because do they need to know whether you're home or not or whether you’re on vacation?
6:50 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Location is always one of those that I struggle with and I understand that there's some apps, a mapping app, that needs to know my location so it can tell me how to get to the next spot. So, that I understand.
But then there's sometimes apps that I think, “Why is that information important? Unless it's just a way of them tracking me or knowing where I was or is something that they're using that data for that I'm not getting any benefit by them knowing my location.
7:16 Kelly May: And sometimes, it's just data. Sometimes, it's not nefarious. They're not trying to steal data from you, but they want to know who is interested in the products that they're affiliated with.
7:24 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Right. They're just information data gathering.
7:27 Kelly May: And that's fine. And a lot of times, this is me personally, I'll turn the location off on my phone, just because it tends to drain the battery.
7:34 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Right. I do the same thing.
7:36 Kelly May: Most of the time, people don't need to know where I'm at. So, sometimes you can turn that off temporarily, but allow it access when it is on if it needs it to work.
Another thing that might come up on your permissions is if it wants to use your phone, your camera or your microphone. Be aware that that means that the app can record what you're doing. And it may not be just while you're in the app, it may be when the app is off also.
Now, a good app is not going to be recording you when you're not using the app, it's the ones we're worried about that might try something like that.
8:10 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: And I will say that that's one, especially my kids on their devices if they download an app, that I'm always really skeptical of is allowing them to have access to the to the camera on it.
8:22 Kelly May: And the same with the hard drive. Because if it has access to the hard drive, that means it can not only read or save files, but it could also delete your files and that makes me a little nervous.
8:31 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Exactly. Exactly.
8:32 Kelly May: Another one to watch out for is phone SMS permissions, which is to make calls or texts. And so, there are a few bad actors out there that will use these apps to be able to make calls from somebody else's phone, so they don't have to get charged.
So, you might want to watch your phone bill just to make sure there's nothing strange on there. Just like we'd say to check any statement that you have, just to make sure that nothing is showing up that shouldn't be on there.
And then finally, your contacts. If it's accessing your contacts, is it really going to be used to contact somebody else or is that something they're collecting in order to use or sell? Is that something that they really need access to?
9:14 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: And that's one, and this is again just me personally, that I always say no to because I think they don't need to know or I don't want my friends to get an ad from them or a push notification or something from them. So, that's one that just kind of me, I'm just always like no to the contacts.
So, what happens, Kelly, if by chance you download one of these bad apps, either unintentionally or you didn't actually maybe fully understand exactly what it was; what should an individual do then?
9:47 Kelly May: If you suspect something's wrong with your app, the first thing to do is get it off your phone. Go ahead and uninstall it. If your phone even just seems to be acting strange and you think, “Oh, it might be that last thing I put on there.” Try taking it off and see if your phone works better without it.
If the problem seems to go away, then that's probably what it was. If that's not what the problem is, then go back to checking your software updates and your patches and making sure your systems running properly and that it's not something related to that.
10:18 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Kelly, thank you so much for joining us today. I think that this is great reminders for us all that it's so easy to click download when it's at our fingertips or maybe just not fully paying enough attention. And I think the points that you've shared today can help us be more wise consumers.
10:35 Kelly May: Thank you.
10:36 Thank you for listening to Talking FACS. We deliver programs focusing on nutrition, health, resource management, family development and civic engagement.
If you enjoy today's podcast, have a question or a show topic idea, leave a ‘Like’ and comment on Facebook @UKFCSExt.
Visit us online at fcs.uky.edu to learn more about the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension program or contact your local extension agent for Family and Consumer Sciences. We build strong families. It starts with us.
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