What Are Your Apps Sharing?

[jntdroid]

"Your Apps Are Watching You" - That is the title of an article the Wall Street Journal posted online a few days ago. The title might be a little too "alarmist" for those of us familiar with the topic, but they do have some interesting findings. They studied 101 popular smartphone apps for the iPhone and Android (here is their methodology) to see exactly what these apps were (or were not) sharing with 3rd parties. They also created a great tool to show their findings - I recommend checking it out, whether you read the article or not. Here are a few tidbits of what they found:

"An examination of 101 popular smartphone "apps"—games and other software applications for iPhone and Android phones—showed that 56 transmitted the phone's unique device ID to other companies without users' awareness or consent. Forty-seven apps transmitted the phone's location in some way. Five sent age, gender and other personal details to outsiders."

"Both the Android and iPhone versions of Pandora, a popular music app, sent age, gender, location and phone identifiers to various ad networks. iPhone and Android versions of a game called Paper Toss—players try to throw paper wads into a trash can—each sent the phone's ID number to at least five ad companies."​

As with most advances in mobile technology, the trade-off is privacy for convenience. True privacy might be gone forever, unless you want to live in a cave; but that doesn't mean we should simply give into it without awareness of what we're giving up.

While this may or may not be earth shattering news (though the tool is pretty slick), I think it's just another reminder to stay aware of exactly what we put on our phones, as they are quickly becoming an extended part of our self.

Article: WSJ
Tool: What They Know

 

[grgguy]

This is extremely dissapointing. I just went and uninstalled , Shazzam and Papertoss . No app should transmit my location at any time . Unless its a GPS(Navigation) type app. I see no other reason that it would need to !

 

[GrillMouster]

Pandora didn't learn

Pandora has been getting a lot of negative attention from the referenced WSJ article. I was surprised that shortly after the article was published Pandora issued a software update that demands even more permissions than it has in the past. It now asks for access to users contacts and calendar. I have not yet updated because of these extra permissions.

The popularitiy of social media integration has resulted in apps asking for increased access to users' personal information so that they can share what they're doing in those apps with their "friends". There's got to be a way to do that without having to give those apps access to the user's contacts. If the OS acted like an escrow service this could happen.

I've noticed that some ad-supported apps, like XiiaLive Lite, use GPS for the ads. I guess it's so the ads can target popuplations in certain geographic regions. I don't like that practice because it's an unnecessary power drain. Also, I don't like my precise location bein shared with third-parties. I might be okay with general regional info (city/state/country), but anything beyond that is too specific for my comfort.

 

[soops]

Would the use of scripts to block ads prevents any of these personal info sent to ad networks? Also what does it means by phone id/identifiers?

 

[Bigaliensexmachine3000]

Uninstalled Pandora through the market.

Reason: malicious (spyware)

 

[sst45jeff]

more info

maybe there needs to be a thread started to educate people on what these specific permissions that are being asked for mean. Some listed when installing an app don't mean anything to the layman so they install without knowing what they are giving up.

 

[solar]

Thats a really interesting article. I'm familiar with the fact that no one using a mobile with apps (or a PC for that matter) is really hidden anymore, but this sheds a new light on it. Cool stuff!

 

[RETG]

What gets me, is if you go to the market to download the widget or whatever you call if for this site, it tells you it has permission for:
Net Communication
Phone Call - Read State ID
My Location (A course location, but still my location)
Storage - which says mofidy or delete SD card storage
and System

Why, does any site need this information? Once I read that, I backed out, don't need it.

 

[jntdroid]

Would the use of scripts to block ads prevents any of these personal info sent to ad networks? Also what does it means by phone id/identifiers?

I believe the device ID is simply a code of some sort that is assigned by the manufacturer or vendor to your specific device, or somehow describes your specific device (i.e. when it was made, where it was shipped, etc) - that's a little bit speculation, so don't hold me to all of that.

 

[solar]

maybe there needs to be a thread started to educate people on what these specific permissions that are being asked for mean. Some listed when installing an app don't mean anything to the layman so they install without knowing what they are giving up.

Thats a pretty good idea. I don't think most people know what the various items mean. Even people who are tech saavy (like me) aren't always familiar with EXACTLY what each means and does and to what extent you are exposed. I wish there was a way to block certain portions of the programs from accessing certain things....

 

[jntdroid]

maybe there needs to be a thread started to educate people on what these specific permissions that are being asked for mean. Some listed when installing an app don't mean anything to the layman so they install without knowing what they are giving up.

Thats a pretty good idea. I don't think most people know what the various items mean. Even people who are tech saavy (like me) aren't always familiar with EXACTLY what each means and does and to what extent you are exposed. I wish there was a way to block certain portions of the programs from accessing certain things....

+1 - more transparency in this area would help, and it would also help quiet down all the chatter that goes on about how the Android market is full of spyware

 

[Incredibilly]

maybe there needs to be a thread started to educate people on what these specific permissions that are being asked for mean. Some listed when installing an app don't mean anything to the layman so they install without knowing what they are giving up.

Thats a pretty good idea. I don't think most people know what the various items mean. Even people who are tech saavy (like me) aren't always familiar with EXACTLY what each means and does and to what extent you are exposed. I wish there was a way to block certain portions of the programs from accessing certain things....

Or an app that blocks outgoing information on an implicit deny command. Just think, when you go in and approve each permission, you get a real understanding of what is being broadcast. I know they usually tell you what they access, but most people don't really read that stuff.

As sort of a parallel example, think about cookies: If you've never done it, set your browser's cookie settings to ask every time and see what crap websites are trying to do.

I wonder how it would affect app performance if I could never allow access to my contacts... sometimes I don't care that it can access fine location... when I want to know where something is (like me).:icon_ banana:

 

[CletusVanDam]

Is there an app out there that allows you to restrict other installed apps from having internet access anytime they want?

 

[AlphaMack]

DroidWall.

 

[HamDog]

Is there an app out there that allows you to restrict other installed apps from having internet access anytime they want?

Microsoft attempted to do this starting with Windows Vista. It's called "User Account Control Settings". It sucked! People realized that they constantly had to give permissions to everything. Apple had a great time making fun of this in their ads.

Pandora has come out and explained why it needs permissions to contacts and calendar: "Your Personal Information: these permissions enable two features-- both of which are always entirely under your control-- to share your Pandora stations with a friend via email, and to add an event featured in an ad (like a movie premier) to your calendar." I'm not saying I believe them, but for those wanting a reason, they have given one.

I posted the Wall Street Journal article in it's entirety a couple of days ago in the general discussion area. Then the mods moved it to the "apps" area, where barely anyone visits. Although I agree it has to do with apps, but I thought it was important enough to be discussed and shared in a more popular general forum. There are more comments there too:

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-applications/107132-your-apps-watching-you.html