More Than Five Percent of Free Mobile Apps Include Adware

Overly aggressive ad networks — which can change users’ phone settings, send notifications and/or covertly access personally identifiable information — are present in five percent of free apps, according to new research by mobile security company Lookout.

Lookout estimates that mobile apps with this kind of privacy-violating adware have been downloaded at least 80 million times, mostly on Android devices. The alleged bad actor ad networks — which include leadbolt, moolah media, appenda and IZP — are most common in personalization apps, to change phone wallpaper or make puzzles, Lookout found.