GET ready for "madware", a term that Symantec has coined for overly-aggressive ads on your Android. The digital security firm has released a new White Paper that details a trend in smartphone apps, in which apps pull ads from a supplier's stock of advertisers.

This is usually used in free apps, where it's common for app makers to choose to monetise via ads, in the hopes of attracting more downloads by making the app free. Symantec estimates that about 55 per cent of all apps in the Google Play store are supported by ad libraries.

Typically, these will display mobile ad banners either on the top or bottom of the screen, or as a momentary splash screen, but more aggressive ads can push notifications into the user's dropdown bars, leave ads in their photo galleries or even change their ringtones. Some are also able to modify browser bookmarks and send out text message ads to friends.