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Secondly, BlueStacks will see some of your computer's data. This might include your phone number, gender, address, and picture. As such, BlueStacks will get access to your name, email address, and any other public information on your Google account. When you download BlueStacks, you share data in two ways.įirstly, when you download BlueStacks, you'll have to log into your Google account. What data does BlueStacks see?Įvery app you download gets some amount of access to your device's data. Tomaschek also stresses that even if BlueStacks is trustworthy, you should still adhere to "to basic digital privacy best practices." These include limiting the amount of personal information you share online, never clicking on shady links, and doing research before downloading any app to make sure that it's safe. And the emulated Android system is run inside of a "secure OS virtualization container, further protecting the user."īut other threats, like social engineering or phishing scams that trick you into giving up data, are still dangerous. A BlueStacks spokesperson assured Insider that every app is run inside of an "App Container," which makes sure the app can't interact with the rest of your system. "Even if you have downloaded BlueStacks from the official site, you can still download potentially malicious apps from the Google Play Store." The Google Play Store has lots of great apps, but also a troubling number of dangerous ones.īlueStacks can protect you from some of these apps, since they're usually designed to work on Android devices, not Macs or PCs. "You'll need to be careful," Attila Tomaschek, a digital privacy researcher from the cybersecurity firm ProPrivacy, told Insider. Over the years, cybersecurity researchers have flagged hundreds of Play Store apps that carry malware, charge you money for worthless or non-existent products, or track your personal information. However, the Google Play Store - which is where you'll be downloading the Android apps from - carries some risks. BlueStacks is a highly respected company and app. The newest version for Mac is called BlueStacks 4, while Windows users can run BlueStacks 5. Just make sure that you download it from BlueStacks' official website.
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