How to identify apps designed to conceal information
By Bianca Buono
@BBuonoABC6
It’s the latest technology trend that you’ve probably never heard of. But the scary truth is that your kids most likely have. They’re called ghost or vault apps.
"Their purpose was probably to be a little bit more safe where people could hide pictures or hide files that they want to protect,” said Diane Santurri, an assistant professor at Johnson and Wales.
But they are mainly being used by teenagers to hide sensitive photos or text messages, often times from their parents.
“We have to know her pass code and go into her phone as much as possible. There is a trust but we trust her we don’t trust other people,” said one parent of a 13-year-old boy.
“We make him put the phone out of his room at night so it goes on a charging station outside of his bedroom,” added another parent of a 13-year-old girl.
But even that kind of monitoring wouldn’t uncover these applications that are free and can be downloaded with a single click.
"You click on it it’s a nice calculator. Well it’s actually not a calculator,” said Diane Santurri.
Diane Santurri is a tech expert and assistant professor at Johnson and Wales. But she’s also a mother of two teens. She demonstrated one of the many ghost apps out there, designed to conceal information.
“You type the code in, you press this button and there’s my little area that would allow me to add in any pictures I want,” Santurri explained.
But when you know what to look for, these apps are no secret and can lead to serious trouble like what happened at a Colorado high school last year. Students were accused of exchanging hundreds of naked photos through a photo vault app but they were caught.
”They were able to share images without anybody knowing. The parents didn’t know. The school eventually found out and of course they were in some pretty deep trouble with it,” said Santurri.
The disguised calculator is just one of hundreds of apps that kids can use, making it impossible for parents to keep up. So what exactly should you be doing to stay ahead of this technology? Santurri says the first and most important step is communication.
If a conversation isn’t enough, parents can take a hands-on approach.
”They can set up a family share where they can get prompted when downloads are happening and they can also put restrictions in place.”
And look for duplicated apps.
“If you’re seeing more than one calculator, if you’re seeing more than one icon that looks similar it may actually be one of those ghost or vault apps so that’s something to definitely take a look at,” Santurri said.
We’ve listed some of the popular ghost or vault apps below:
Best Secret Folder
Private Photo Vault
KeepSafe
KYMS
Fake Calculator
HiCalculator
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