Security Company Says Ashley Madison Sees Android Increase Before Christmas

Cheating site Ashley Madison has apparently witnessed a spike in usage amongst Android users as the festive season approaches, according to a new report by an online security company.

The Canadian adultery site, which was the victim of a massive security breach back in July, has had an awful year, with lawsuits stacking up, users flocking from the service and its founder & CEO Noel Biderman leaving the company.

The report, by AVG Technologies, says that in the months following the data breach, where the personal details of its 33m users was leaked online by hackers, just 5% of Android users who had the app installed in July actually used it.

However, in Q3, AVG Technologies said that Ashley Madison went back up to a usage ratio of 15%, which is the percentage of people who had the app installed and actively used it.

And according to AVG, other similar dating platforms recorded an uplift in Android use during the penultimate quarter of the year.

Competing platform MiuMeet saw an uptick in usage from 50% (before July) to 73% (August and onwards).

The study also said that AnastasiaDate went from 11% to 60% in October.

The data was taken from the company’s Android App Performance & Trends Report for Q3 of 2015, which uses the anonymous data of over one million AVG Android app users to examine “usage trends among consumers”.

In addition to the dating app findings, the report also identifies the apps that have the biggest effect on Android battery life, storage and mobile data.

It identified Facebook as the leading auto-startup app for “ruining your smartphone’s battery, data and storage” throughout Q3, and Snapchat as the top out of apps initiated by the user.

Speaking about the report, AVG Technologies’ Senior Security Evangelist, Tony Anscombe, said: “Over the last year, we have been focused on helping our users understand which apps have the biggest impact on their smartphone performance.

“Based on the findings from all four quarterly App Reports, to date, and the engagement they have driven with consumers, we have developed a tool called AVG App Manager.

“With AVG App Manager, Android users are able to see which apps are affecting their individual smartphone’s performance and then use this information to make better-informed choices about how to best manage their smartphone resources.”

For more information, check out the infographic below: