QR codes have become an integral part of today’s world. However, QR code scanners from the App Store can pose some dangers – tech experts therefore recommend using a different method for scanning the black and white codes.
Countless scanner apps available in the App Store
In recent years, QR codes have been used more and more frequently in all possible areas of public life. Especially in the wake of the Corona pandemic, most restaurants have started to place contact data tracking and menus behind the black and white QR codes. So it’s no wonder that more and more scanning apps are available in the app stores, and in most cases users can even download them to their cell phones for free. However, such tools are sometimes not as harmless as they seem at first glance and can harbor some dangers. These are the most important things to pay attention to.
QR code scanner installs unwanted advertisements
Anyone who downloads QR code scanners online or in the App Store without caution can run into some problems, show Techbook reports from a current case in the app world: Millions were installed when the QR code scanner from Lavabird Ltd was downloaded Users received malicious software without their knowledge that delivered unwanted advertising to their cell phones. As the US IT security company Malwarebytes discovered, Lavabird introduced a tool called “HiddenAds” into the app via a new update, thus ensuring that owners of the app have since then inexplicably been exposed to uncontrolled and unsolicited advertising on their app Smartphone received. Many users were unsettled by the penetrating advertising on their cell phones. Until the cause was found, users had to deal with the virus on their smartphones for some time.
Newer smartphones have an integrated scanner function
In general, if you want to scan a QR code in a restaurant or supermarket, you should pay attention to the best way to do it. In principle, tech magazines and virus experts recommend using the QR code scanner integrated into the smartphone’s camera app rather than the free apps available in the App Store. In most cases, newer smartphones in particular already have pre-installed QR code scanners – a separate installation is therefore no longer necessary. As the tech portal Chip.de reports, all smartphone users with Android version 9.0 or higher can already use the camera’s integrated scanner. The function has also been available to iPhone owners since iOS 12 already installed in the camera app – users can follow the link preview and open Safari via a pop-up.
Safe QR code scanners for download
However, anyone who owns smartphones with older operating systems has no other option than to install a QR code scanner if they want to scan a QR code with their cell phone. It is important to pay attention to the ratings of the app in the App Store and the assessments of the experts before downloading a scanner onto your own smartphone.
Chip.de recommends the QR and barcode scanner from TeaCapps to security-conscious cell phone users. The free app places advertising within the application, but at the same time fulfills all the functions that a QR code scanner must have. Above all, the security of the application is convincing. The advice portal DeinHandy Magazin also recommends the free QR code scanner due to its high level of security. Apart from that, DeinHandy Magazine also names the Barcoo scanner and the QR Code Scanner app as recommendations for good QR code scanners.
Pauline Breitner/editorial team finanzen.net