Gadgetory

a trip to the App Store can feel like Christmas with the download of a new free app it's also become a playground for aggressive ads and malware this is something that we're seeing where security companies are realizing that especially in the mobile age where it's sort of a wild west anything-goes scenario some seemingly innocuous apps bombard smartphones with spammy ads and icons and it can get worse you have that network set without your knowledge can take your email address or your phone number and then send it for who knows what to to some server someplace Kevin mahaffey is the co-founder of Lookout a mobile security firm trying to educate advertisers about what is considered okay any time an advertising network is putting advertisements in a place where you don't expect them we think that's a problem the firm estimates that five percent of free Android apps have invasive advertising that's hundreds of millions of downloads so how can you protect yourself from invasive ad networks and app malware first read the Terms and Conditions this is not a 20-page terms of service that you have to read through it's a very tierce very short message next make sure that you're downloading from a known source and finally check out lookouts free software download that lets you see the behavior of apps and uninstall them accordingly in San Francisco Jonah's tishnar cnet.com for CBS News