The internet is an amazing invention. It brought so much good into this world. It added more convenience to our daily lives. It connected billions of people together. It allowed us to make out-of-state calls for free. It allowed us to leap over MMS and share pictures and videos without needing to pay a penny to the cell phone company.
The internet has brought a lot of ease into our lives. It’s responsible for many good things. But it’s also responsible for many bad things that are happening today. Your parents were right after all! The internet indeed has many dark corners, and they’re sure to hurt you if you venture into them. One dark corner is the place from where you download 3rd party applications.
The innovation brought in by the Play Store
Soon after Apple came out with the App Store for its iOS devices, Google released its own version of a place from where you could download and install applications to your Android phone. The Play Store became a major hit and even surpassed Apple in terms of the number of users and applications. There are currently millions of applications listed on the Play Store, and these have been downloaded billions and trillions of times.
The Play Store is not just a hub of amazing applications, it is also the only platform from where you can download apps on your Android device that are actually safe. You see, Google actually has a team in place that checks if the app is safe before allowing it to be listed on the Play Store. It has policies in place that need to be met by the developers. Only when the safety standards are met is the app allowed to get listed on the Play Store. The same cannot be said of other application platforms.
Downloading apps from outside the Play Store is dangerous!
There are so many platforms that offer free applications for your Android smart device. You’ll find hundreds of thousands of websites that offer a free application for your smart device. It’s hard to ignore an application that offers free IPTV, or maybe a very enticing game. But remember, even the most irresistible application might prove to be more dangerous than you think.
Let me explain what happens once you download an application from outside the Play Store. First of all, it is very likely that this application was actually developed by a hacker. This means that once you install this application, the hacker can get full control over your device. He can choose to snoop on your daily activities. Or he can steal your private data and use it to blackmail you. He can even send threatening messages and emails to your friends and colleagues using your device. It’s very difficult to place a cap on what can be done once your device is hacked.
To make a long story short, downloading any app from outside the Play Store is very dangerous. So, if you wish to keep your device and your data safe, then I suggest that you stick to the Play Store for now.
And for extra safety, always make sure that you have a VPN installed on your device. Because a VPN offers you with online security features that are unavailable everywhere else. With end-to-end encryption at your disposal, you can be sure that your device will remain safe from many online threats. And if you want to download an app that’s not available in your region, a VPN can again help you fulfill this use case.
Author Bio:
Yasir Shamim is an up and coming Digital Marketer currently working as an Executive at PureVPN with the aim of increasing their search engine visibility. Digital Marketer by day and Tech Fanatic by night, he enjoys reading up about cyber security and technology in general and also loves to share his opinions.
