22 of 30 popular Russian apps monitor whether your VPN is enabled

RKS Global experts analyzed 30 of the most popular Russian Android applications and found that 22 of them detect VPNs, and 18 send this information to their servers - from where it can be transmitted to security forces upon request, follows from a study reviewed by The Bell.

In early April, the Ministry of Digital Development held meetings with the largest Internet companies and instructed them to restrict access to users with VPN enabled by April 15. It turns out that the infrastructure for this already exists.

Most often, VPNs are detected by banking applications - T-Bank, Sberbank, VTB - as well as applications of the Yandex and VK ecosystems: Browser, Maps, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki. Marketplaces include Wildberries, Ozon, MegaMarket, and Samokat. According to the study, eight applications do not detect VPNs: Yandex Market, Yandex Food, Government Services, Yandex Go, Zen, Mail. ru", "MegaFon" and Mir Pay.

What else did the study find?

Yandex Browser is the only one of the 30 applications that also searches for the anonymous Tor browser on the device.

“Samokat” and MegaMarket receive not just VPN status, but a list of all VPN applications installed on the phone.

In 11 applications - among them T-Bank, Sberbank, Gosuslugi and Rutube - interception of screen touch events was detected. In three of them - Sberbank, MTS and Alfa-Bank - this is used as behavioral biometrics: coordinates, pressure and size of clicks are collected. This allows you to identify a person by the manner of clicking - without a login.

Avito scans more than 200 other people's applications on the device: banks, marketplaces, social networks, competitors.

What to do

The ideal option is two phones: one for Russian applications, the second for everything else with a VPN. If you have only one phone, Work Profile on Android will help you through the Shelter application: this way, applications from different profiles do not see each other. Important: Work Profile does not hide the fact that VPN is enabled, but only the data between profiles.

Russian applications should be forcibly stopped before turning on the VPN - not just minimized, but stopped through the settings. Of the sample studied, 22 applications run in the background and record the moment the VPN, Proxy or Tor is turned on.

It is better to leave geolocation only to navigators and only “when in use.” Access to contacts - revoke for everyone except instant messengers.