What is Fleeceware? How to protect yourself from Fleeceware apps?

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Will yous subscribe to a torchlight app at $45 per month, especially when at that place are dozens of free alternatives available? This article talks nearly Fleeceware! What is fleeceware and how to protect yourself from Fleeceware.

What is Fleeceware?

Fleeceware apps fleece you!

These cannot be called malware because fleeceware apps don't install a virus or something similar to your estimator and/or phone. They are malicious nevertheless, in a way that they accuse you an extremely high fee – onetime or monthly – with your legal consent. I call it legal consent because rarely we ever really go through terms and conditions (T&C) folio before accepting and installing the apps. T

In other cases, yous know that you lot will exist and are being charged for an app fifty-fifty after removing it from your phone, but you don't know how to stop it. This is considering the subscription of the app doesn't finish merely by uninstalling it from your figurer or telephone. And since you accepted the terms and atmospheric condition, you lot cannot terminate the payment until you actually unsubscribe from the app or service that is being billed.

There are two types of fleeceware:

I that charges loftier fees once, at the time of buy, or at the finish of the trial period
The other type of fleeceware is the one that charges you every month even if you lot uninstall the app from your device.

How to protect yourself from fleeceware apps?

A common perception is that if anything is costly, it provides meliorate services. Such thought thing should go away first because there are low cost or fifty-fifty costless alternatives providing the same service in a better style.

The second thing is to cease buying on impulse. While browsing through the Play Store, for instance, you lot see this beautiful description of an app and you lot purchase it without even knowing how they'll charge you for using their app. Since these apps do not require whatsoever coin card separate from the i y'all have on your Google account, you may lose money past ignorance. Because the charge in your menu statement won't give many details about the transaction and then you don't know that the app makers charged yous.

There are three types of charges:

One-time accuse
Monthly Charges
Both

Some fleeceware apps fleece you simply one time: when y'all install the app. Ofttimes such apps are trialware and come with a very small trial period like three days. They volition non notify yous about the trial period expiry and proceed to bill you.

Other fleeceware apps accuse monthly or yearly. These are hard to get rid of. Y'all see charges on your credit card statement, but y'all tin can't locate who charged y'all. Such apps don't even send you bills/invoices before/after deducting money from your card.

When you realize that the charge could be related to the app you installed to your computer or telephone and proceed to uninstall it from your device. But next month again sees a charge of a similar type on your card statement. Such fleeceware manufacturers count on the digital illiteracy of users. An average person won't empathize the charge considering he or she did not take enough time to study the terms and weather condition of the app usage. By downloading such an app, you give your approval to the billing system of developers of that app.

Know that uninstalling the app from device and unsubscribing are two different things. Because most people with phones and tablets do not know much most technicalities, they don't know how to unsubscribe, and this is the weak point that enables fleeceware to fleece you.

To protect yourself from fleeceware apps:

Ever read the fine print in the app description and nether Terms and Conditions of that app
Check out if the base of operations accuse of the app is likewise loftier. Y'all don't really need a paid torchlight app if you tin become dozens of like apps at no or very low cost
If you lot want the developers to end charging yous, don't just remove the app from your device; instead, unsubscribe
If you don't know how to unsubscribe an app that you lot removed, ask someone for directions; it could also be possible that you reinstall the app and the app has an unsubscribe push that yous can use before removing it from your device.
Always install/download apps from either Android Play Store or iOS AppStore; not that these markets tell you about fleeceware simply because the take chances is low

The above explains what is fleeceware and how to protect yourself from fleeceware.

Arun Kumar is a Microsoft MVP alumnus, obsessed with engineering science, especially the Internet. He deals with the multimedia content needs of training and corporate houses. Follow him on Twitter @PowercutIN