Your Smartphone Apps Can't Keep A Secret

We live in an age where information is king. This has never been more true than in the world of mobile applications. A Wall Street Journal investigation finds that iPhone and Android apps are breaching the privacy of smartphone users. The investigation found that these phones are sharing personal data widely and regularly with ad networks and online tracking companies. A study of 101 popular apps showed that a large majority of them transmitted the phone's unique device ID to third party companys without the knowledge or consent of the user. Some apps transmitted the phone's location in some way and other apps transmitted demographic data such as age and gender. Both Apple and Google stress that they require applications to obtain permission to transmit certain kinds of data, but the study illustrates that these rules can apparently be circumvented. This is no wonder as both Apple and Google have big stakes in the ad business. Apple declined to discuss how it interprets or enforces its policy and Google punted, saying it is the responsibility of the app maker to determine how they handle user information. Once again it looks like we lowly consumers are left to fend for ourselves. With each passing day I feel as though privacy is a quaint notion from a bygone era.

Read the full Wall Street Journal article here.