This browser is killing your smartphone

UC Browser owned by Alibaba can easily be found in any device. It has always been a top browser according to data I have seen on Play store for years, and second only to the Google Chrome in cross platform download numbers, and why not? UC Browser is a great browser which offers matchless downloading speed over any network. It is also available as a light version for low end devices and comes with many inbuilt good to go features.

Its Problems

Few years back it used to be my favourite until they really messed up everything I used to love. Annoying Ads are first to start with, they don’t show you ads they literally spam you, and those Ads are not even classified and could be offensive at times. 

Spamming notification panel is another thing UC Browser is good with, and you will really have to struggle to find out any important notification like OTPs once you have installed this browser and, if you have not yet seen the type of news they keep pushing you as notifications. They are close to porn click baits. Enough to make you ashamed on countless situations.

But the reason am writing this post are neither ads nor those spamming notification or porn news but our privacy. You will be shocked to know that UC Browser had been taken down from play store by Google on ground of data theft.

UC Browser was making users privacy vulnerable more to that UC Browser was controlling our DNS even after installation and sending our location to their remote server located in China making even your personal information and files vulnerable. You can call it data leaking or anything but Excuse us! Who in hell gave this browser permission to touch our sensitive data.

Consequences of Data Leaking

In a survey it was found that 75% of people don’t even know the consequences of data leaking, losses we can have by sharing our Ip address, or data these apps collects. 

I will start with direct consequence that we can have on us. We all click photos make videos and store sensitive information in our smartphones, some photos and files are more sensitive than other ones and, at our control level we do our best to protect them. You will most probably be using some locker app to store this photos or using some inbuilt settings to hide this files. But your data is still vulnerable and I can not imagine anyways you want your sensitive data to be on someone else’s disk.

Now, at Country level popular apps like UC Browser can collect Ip address for its government, Government can conclude metro populations and many other critical data by well analysis of this mass data. This is why no military officer is allowed to use smartphones inside base and their communications are locked at a specific frequency unauthorized to be used by any person or company.

Google Pixel 4 and Pixel 4XL is a perfect example here, they are not launched in India as they use Soli radar, which operates at frequency that cannot be used in India for Civilian purpose. (You can read this full article by clicking here).

What we Suggest

UC Browser is now available to download from Play Store with updated privacy policy and though no claim has been filled again, I highly encourage you not to use any China based application as a daily driver and to be careful with permissions you are granting them as not only Alibaba but many Chinese companies like Huawei has been found guilty for data leaking.