As the friendliest digital security and privacy company on Earth, Quokka loves calling attention to businesses and app developers leading the way in proactive security and privacy stewardship.
Since last year, we’ve made it a point to put together a holiday “Nice List” showcasing mobile shopping apps that go the distance for consumers. By analyzing popular apps across five business categories, we’ve compiled a shortlist of the apps most deserving of consumer trust this holiday season. Other apps are also in the what is considered safe list, but we are showcasing the top 5.
The apps listed here appear to have the lowest Android threat scores in their category, and are deemed Quokka Secure.
The Top 5
The top 5 apps assessed were Society6, Madewell, Lucky Supermarket, Brad’s Deal and Stripe Dashboard. Other standout apps in their respective categories included:
Boutique Apps:
- Society 6
- Etsy
- Sell on Folksy
- Poshmark
- Zazzle
Note: Of the Boutique Mobile Apps scanned, the average threat score was 25 with the most common threat being apps asking for more permissions than they needed to perform their core functions.
Big Brand Clothing:
- Madewell
- Victoria’s Secret
- PacSun
- American Eagle/Arie
- Nordstrom
Note: Of the Big Brand Clothing Apps scanned, the average threat score was 31 with the most common threat being the lack of a runtime app security protection (RASP) solution.
Digital Wallets & Payments:
- Stripe Dashboard
- Xoom Money Transfer
- Remitly: Send Money & Transfer
- Wise
- Wallet Cards | Digital Wallet
Note: Of the Digital Wallet Mobile Apps scanned, the average threat score was 56, with most threats being low or medium risk to endusers. The most common privacy finding is that the apps share information about the user or app behavior with social networks.
Big Box Retailers:
- Lucky Supermarket
- Whole Foods Market
- Rite Aid
- Toys “R” Us
- Bed Bath & Beyond
Note: Of the Big Box Retailer Mobile Apps scanned, the average threat score was 32, with medium to low risk to endusers. The most common privacy finding is tracking user behavior in their app with a third party tracking service.
Discount and Deal Giver Apps:
- Brad’s Deals
- Zulily
- DealNews
- Capital One Shopping
- Rakuten
Note: Of the Discount and Deal Giver Mobile Apps scanned, the average threat score was 34. The two most common privacy findings were tracking user behavior in the app with a third party tracking service and sharing user or app information with social networks.
How Did We Evaluate Apps on the List?
All apps included on the list were vetted using mobile app vetting. Quokka provides mobile app vetting to organizations worldwide via our Q-scout solution, enabling them to proactively identify security and privacy vulnerabilities on employees’ mobile devices without violating enduser privacy in the process. Q-scout tests modern protected apps without needing to circumvent built-in app protections, increasing the accuracy of security and privacy insights and speeding up the app vetting process.
Understand Risk to Eliminate It
For businesses and app developers facilitating mobile commerce, it is critically important to understand where risk proliferates, both to strengthen security and privacy posture and protect endusers.
Limiting the amount of permissions an app requires is a basic (yet fundamentally important) way to reduce points of exposure. Each new permission granted creates a potential point of vulnerability.
- Since many consumers reflexively grant permissions when prompted, it’s important to be proactive about including only the most essential integration requests.
- These types of vulnerabilities were especially common in the apps analyzed to create the 2022 Nice List.
To gain a clearer picture of the security and privacy posture of a given application, consider using Q-mast to quickly, accurately, and non-invasively scan your business’ mobile application for security and privacy vulnerabilities. For more information, contact us.
