The extent to which users really don't have total control over their cellphones, or any other connected devices is really surprising; many seemingly otherwise benign apps can exert appalling degrees of control over your phone and, what's worse is the users themselves are giving the apps actual permission to hijack their phones; for almost all apps, there appears, just before installation, a checkbox of some kind where the app, in a usually cursory manner will ask for your permission to do certain things on your phone or have specific access to parts of your phone; the average user, in their eagerness to have the latest and greatest app, will just blithely check the "OK" box and hit "Install", not really giving much of a glance at what they just agreed to, much as an awful lot of people do when they are presented with a EULA or Privacy Notice; I found that I had to have a 'smartphone' because so much of my medial communications were based on enhanced text messages, etc., that my trusty flip phone couldn't handle (Leroy Jethro and I are of similar mind; when I got my smartphone, I did try putting on a very few apps, at first, but soon noticed, even though I disabled the phone's data or WiFi connections after I used either, I would later open the phone for use and find either or both actively engaged; then there was an occasion when I discovered a couple of images I had stored on the phone had disappeared (fortunately, I had already copied them to my PC); it turned out a couple of the apps I had installed were able to turn on WiFi and/or data connections and at least one was able to 'see' and delete images stored on my phone, and those apps were well-known, 'reputable' apps from major providers; needles to say, they were quickly uninstalled and deleted from the phones app library (something you should do if you uninstall an app and really don't want it anymore; apps still left in the library uninstalled still take up storage space and a few can even self-reinstall if another related app finds them on your phone and reactivates them); I now never install any app that makes unnecessary or intrusive access demands as a condition of installation, regardless of how temping the app may be; so far, none of the medically based apps I have had to install have been on condition of relegation of some phone control, but I suspect that has more to do with HIPPA laws than any altruism of the medical entities; if they should ever make unreasonable demands for use, I'm not sure what I will do...
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