The dispute between Android and iOS sparks debates, with both sides presenting strong arguments. Regarding the applications offered, a researcher sought to understand which of the two operating systems most values user security. Do you have any guesses?
The market knows that Apple builds high security barriers around its products. This particularity of the system pleases users, despite raising questions and motivating rules signed by the European Union.
Android, in turn, is a more permissive operating system and, therefore, will be more prone to irregularities.
Despite this "popular wisdom" regarding both operating systems, Ernestas Naprys, journalist at Cybernews, decided to specifically understand their cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities.
Between Android and iOS, the user comes and chooses
In a publication, he shared the results of a security experiment, in which he installed 100 applications from German application stores on a new iPhone and Android smartphone. Citing Buildfire, on average, users have more than 80 applications installed on their devices and do not use a quarter of them after downloading.
He then left the devices inactive and noted the frequency with which foreign servers contacted him, as well as the location of these servers.
The fact that an application establishes contact with an external server may mean that user data is accessible to authorities in those countries and, potentially, their governments. Also potentially jeopardizing your privacy and security.
As reported, Naprys left the Apple smartphone idle for five days and "logged every outgoing connection the iPhone made to external servers." This sent an average of 3308 requests per day, compared to 2323 for Android.
Interestingly, despite sending more orders, the iPhone was much more discerning when the focus moved to where those orders were sent:
- 60% of iOS orders (thus a large portion of outbound traffic) went to Apple;
- 24% of Android requests (so a small portion of traffic) went to Google.
For example, while iOS contacted a Russian server on average once a day, the Android device did so 13 more times, a total of 39 times in three days.
Furthermore, the iPhone never contacted any server in China, despite having several Chinese applications installed. In turn, the Android smartphone contacted Chinese servers an average of five times a day.
Apple's device also performed better when it came to services known to have a questionable approach to user privacy:
- The iPhone contacted Facebook's servers an average of 20 times a day, compared to nearly 200 times a day on Android.
- The iPhone contacted TikTok 36 times in total - and even then, it reached a ByteDance server that was not located in China - and the Android device contacted TikTok almost 800 times.
According to Naprys, "all the apps on the App Store had big platforms behind them and were more useful than ad-supported flashlights, prank creators, or dubious PDF viewers on Google Play."
As he concluded, "no application in the Apple App Store can be considered blatant adware."
[...] This could also be due to Apple's stricter policies for developers in its closed ecosystem regarding privacy in general.
In conclusion, none of the operating systems achieved an impeccable result. However, Naprys realized that an iPhone will send fewer orders to questionable locations than an Android device.
Tags: Android iOS Investigator responds
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