There really is no such thing as a free lunch. It turns out many of those “free” apps you’re downloading from ay are connecting to a sprawled network of tracking sites.

Security researchers tested a group of 2,000 apps from the ay Store found they connect to 250,000 different UR from 2,000 different top-level domains.

The team from Eurecam said they’re working on an app that you’ll be able to use on your own Android device for determining if any of your favorite apps are connecting to nefarious tracking sites. 

About 10 percent of the sample group were rather aggressive about tracking, connecting to about 500 different UR, some of them with questionable origins.

The research singled out Eurosport ayer, which alone connects to 810 tracking sites. ile the pervasiveness of the in-app connections aren’t necessarily dangerous on their own, it does highlight how much data exchange is going on behind the scenes when you use a mobile app.

A link to the full study was posted to the Cornell University brary site.

The impact on you: Android security is somewhat of a mixed bag. If you stick to the major apps from the ay Store you’re unlikely to encounter any malware. has even tightened its rules, now reviewing apps before they go live in the ay Store. However, this research indicates a bit more transparency may be warranted if it wants the ay Store to appear as consumer-friendly as Apple’s App Store.