Many users will opt for free version of an Android app rather than paying a premium to enjoy ad-free experience for that particular app. While you might think that you are saving money by using free Android apps, well you might be wrong. There’s no free lunch, remember!
You should find out that most if not all of the free apps or games that you have on your Android device do somehow serve in-app ads. Yes, this is how app developers earn money and there’s absolutely nothing wrong about that. The number of ads shown vary from app to app.
However, you should beware of apps that use over-aggressive ad networks to earn extra revenue.
According to Norton research, the use of aggressive ad networks inside free apps to make more money for app developers has increased by 31% from 9 months ago. Norton even gives a name to such apps, by calling them “madware” or mobile adware. Some madware has been known to place advertising in your device’s photo albums, calendar entries and push messages to your notification bar. Madware can even go so far as to replace your ringtone with an ad!
Introducing Norton Spot Beta, the latest free app (don’t worry, it’s not a madware) from Norton that enables you to scan and detect aggressive advertising networks that have the potentials to spam your Android device via the apps you install. Fire up Norton Spot if you suspects there is madware in your device.
Some behaviors of madware that Norton Spot scans at are ad that collects your device’s phone number, location information, displays ads on your notification bar, adds icons or shortcuts to device screen, modifies your web browser bookmarks, replaces your dial tone with an audio ad, sends you ads through text messages, changes your web browser homepage and more.
After completed scan, you can view the number of madware found according to the behaviors and you can sort the apps by potential annoyance level. From there, you can decide which apps to uninstall.
P.S. : Android apps that feature ads can significantly affect your phone’s battery life too. Sometime it is better to fork out some money to purchase ad-free apps. Yes, think it over.
