Pub.7 2018 Issue 4

The CommunityBanker 20 The Secret Life of Mobile Apps By Samantha Torrez S ome of our apps are for fun things like accessing social me- dia websites, and others are for utilitarian things like paying bills, managing insurance, or overseeing banking accounts. With apps like these having access to our most intimate details, we should closely monitor the apps we use and what these apps can access on our mobile devices. You can determine the access you give to apps by going to your mobile device’s settings. Consider the messaging application, Slack, as an example. Often used in professional office settings, Slack allows you to create groups and send messages. The mobile app for Slack can optionally access your Photos, Camera, and even Siri. Allowing apps like Slack the ability to access photos, camera, or other information is a reasonable choice since Slack uses this information to make the experience better, but other applications may not need to access this information. In light of this, let’s review the three primary pieces of infor- mation that apps will request to access. B A N K B Y T E S