Your Apps Are Watching You

[boutons_deux]

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.

The findings reveal the intrusive effort by online-tracking companies to gather personal data about people in order to flesh out detailed dossiers on them.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704694004576020083703574602.html?m od=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

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We're From The Corporation and We're Here to Rape You.

You think the corps will stop doing this voluntarily, will police themselves effectively?

You think There Otta Be A Law? Does 4th Amendment apply?

If the IRS/FBI/NSA were doing this, people would go 4th-Amendment apeshit (but not the tea baggers).

If the sacred, Just-Trust-Us corps do it, then <shrug>, What's a "4th Amendment"?

And we assume the IRS/FBI/NSA can snoop this corporate data without judicial approval.

[Wild Cobra]

And this is new, because?

You ever read the agreements?

[boutons_deux]

Where has this been studied and reported before?

I know MS's update/license check procedure years ago was silently sending the machine's config and list of all software to MS, but they got caught and supposedly stopped.

[spursncowboys]

Google and Facebook do way worse things to your private messages and searches.
Look at your cell phone agreement because they can, for no real reason, listen to the noise coming from your phone at any time-even when you have your phone turned off.

[ElNono]

Nothing new here. That said, at least on the iPhone, the user has to opt in to send location information. Also, the UDID contains no personal information. Companies cannot obtain personal information about the purchasers, including contact information, unless they solicit it directly.

I don't completely know how it works on the Android side, but I think it might be a bit less restrictive there.

Now, as far as law enforcement, wiretapping and surveillance abilities on the network are mandated. That applies to every network pretty much.

[ElNono]

Where has this been studied and reported before?

I know MS's update/license check procedure years ago was silently sending the machine's config and list of all software to MS, but they got caught and supposedly stopped.

This has been known since the original iPhone at the very least. That's why an App wants to use the GPS, the OS asks you if you want to allow it.

[Wild Cobra]

I don't completely know how it works on the Android side, but I think it might be a bit less restrictive there.

Well, I simply don't use very many of the built in apps. The first time, you have to agree to the user agreement. I think the language is despicable. many are third party applications, and I'll bet if more people actually read the user agreements, things would change.

That said, I can individually turn of the GPS and other features. I leave it on, and actually let 3rd party's use my location for searches, suggestions, etc. That is one of my options, to send GPS data to providers.

[romad_20]

Look at your cell phone agreement because they can, for no real reason, listen to the noise coming from your phone at any time-even when you have your phone turned off.


:lol What?? No they can't. Its simply not possible to do that. BTW I work for a cell phone company as a Technician.

[spursncowboys]

read a wsj article that they could and were doing that to phones. Even while the phone wasn't in use. I didn't mean to say actually off. sorry about that misunderstanding.

[spursncowboys]

I wonder if in real life you would start off a conversation you were confident and ignorant of, by laughing. doubt it but don't worry we are online. check your etiquette at the door.

[Spurminator]

Nobody is watching you. You are a simply one piece in a collection of demographic data used to target advertising. You would not avoid this advertising if your info wasn't collected, all this does is make it so the ads you see are something that might have a greater than 1% chance of being of interest to you. This goes for Google and Facebook as well.

[romad_20]

I wonder if in real life you would start off a conversation you were confident and ignorant of, by laughing. doubt it but don't worry we are online. check your etiquette at the door.

Link??
I would and I do if someone says something ridiculous. I don't need any etiquette lessons from some douche online, thx.

[ElNono]

It's was done by bugging the battery on the phone. There was a mob case in NY IIRC that used that method. It doesn't necessarily uses the cell network.
That said, if you're a cell technician you're well aware of trap and trace intercepts that are mandatory on the network and the LE access to tower to tower triangulation or gps location data.

Then again, I believe the op was referring mostly to silent data gathering for marketing purposes, like Flurry or AdMob.

[DJ Mbenga]

oh no the panipticon!!!!!!!

[Wild Cobra]

It's was done by bugging the battery on the phone. There was a mob case in NY IIRC that used that method. It doesn't necessarily uses the cell network.
That said, if you're a cell technician you're well aware of trap and trace intercepts that are mandatory on the network and the LE access to tower to tower triangulation or gps location data.

Then again, I believe the op was referring mostly to silent data gathering for marketing purposes, like Flurry or AdMob.
The location capability is different that the opening the mic theory.

[boutons_deux]

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Wired: "[Two] companies, Allot Communications and Openet — suppliers to large wireless companies including AT&T and Verizon — showed off a new product in a web seminar Tuesday, which included a PowerPoint presentation (1.5-MB .pdf) that was sent to Wired by a trusted source. The idea? Make it possible for your wireless provider to monitor everything you do online and charge you extra for using Facebook, Skype or Netflix. For instance, in the seventh slide of the above PowerPoint, a Vodafone user would be charged two cents per MB for using Facebook, three euros a month to use Skype and $0.50 monthly for a speed-limited version of YouTube."

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/12/18/1428230/Look-Forward-To-Per-Service-Per-Page-Fees?from=rss