In recent years, the Quality of mobile communications in Germany increased significantly. Nevertheless, there are still frequent jerky streams and barely loading websites on the go. Speedchecker apps that can check the speed promises of providers are therefore very popular. According to a test by the online magazine mobilsicher, however, many of these apps collect sensitive data. Data of their users.
The editors of Mobilsicher.de analyzed a total of 14 speed checker apps for Android. The basic function is always the same for these tools. A connection is established to a measurement server, from which a certain amount of data is transferred. The app then calculates the transmission speed from the required time.
Monitoring of WLANs and locations
However, a large proportion of the apps also record data that is irrelevant for the actual speed measurement. Six of the apps store the basic service set identifier (BSSID) of the WLAN. This is a unique address that is calculated from the Mac address in many routers. BSSID-to-Geo databases make it possible to determine the user's location without having to grant authorization on the smartphone.
The data in the numerous BSSID-to-Geo databases mostly comes from apps that can query the GPS location data and read the BSSID. Both can then be stored in a Database connected. Four of the apps tested by Mobilsicher.de transmit the BSSID to third parties.
Location data and International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) transmitted
The company's Etrality apps also transmit location data to the advertising network Mopub (Twitter) and the French advertising company Smart, if users grant permission. In total, Etrality's three apps have 16 million downloads in Google's Play Store.
The company V-SPEED.eu, whose app uses the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), goes even further. This is the unique number of the SIM card used. The company told Mobilsicher.de that this information is not used for advertising or to create a user profile, but only to record the coverage cards. However, V-SPEED.eu did not explain what the IMSI is needed for.
Broadband measurement and Librespeed recommended
From a data protection point of view, only the apps Librespeed and Breitbandmessung der Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA) are recommendable, which are ad-free and free of charge. During the test, Librespeed only collected technically necessary data and did not request any permissions. The open source app is available at F-Droid available.
The BNetzA's app does request location to offer a number of additional features, but it works without granting permission. Available in the Google Play Store. According to the numerous user reviews and the Mobilsicher.de test, the only negative aspects are some crashes of the tool.
