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Your Apps Are Watching You
WSJ ^ | 12/18/10 | SCOTT THURM and YUKARI IWATANI KANE

Posted on 12/18/2010 5:23:18 PM PST by LibWhacker

A WSJ Investigation finds that iPhone and Android apps are breaching the privacy of smartphone users

Few devices know more personal details about people than the smartphones in their pockets: phone numbers, current location, often the owner's real name—even a unique ID number that can never be changed or turned off.

These phones don't keep secrets. They are sharing this personal data widely and regularly, a Wall Street Journal investigation has 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: advertising; android; apps; consumerprotection; consumers; customers; iphone; privacy; smartphones; spam; spying; watching
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1 posted on 12/18/2010 5:23:22 PM PST by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
2 posted on 12/18/2010 5:28:21 PM PST by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
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To: LibWhacker

Tor is your friend, friends.


3 posted on 12/18/2010 5:36:46 PM PST by Soothesayer9
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To: LibWhacker

If you didn’t compile it yourself, you don’t know what it does, do you?


4 posted on 12/18/2010 5:38:54 PM PST by proxy_user
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To: LibWhacker

This sort of thing does not help to convince me that I should get a cell phone.


5 posted on 12/18/2010 5:58:03 PM PST by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's "Economics In One Lesson.")
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To: cripplecreek
I always feel like
somebody's watching me.


6 posted on 12/18/2010 6:07:10 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: LibWhacker
Thx for posting this. I saw this and related today on the "news aggregator" app on my new iPhone. I'd have posted it, but it would been too much work from ... My new iPhone.

In incidentally, the WSJ story contains a queer reference that I think is gratuitous. The Journal does that sometimes. I'm looking for a better version to send to everyone I know... from my new iPhone.

sent from my iPhone.

7 posted on 12/18/2010 6:07:46 PM PST by the invisib1e hand (oy. Again I say, oy.)
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To: LibWhacker
Thx for posting this. I saw this and related today on the "news aggregator" app on my new iPhone. I'd have posted it, but it would been too much work from ... My new iPhone.

In incidentally, the WSJ story contains a queer reference that I think is gratuitous. The Journal does that sometimes. I'm looking for a better version to send to everyone I know... from my new iPhone.

sent from my iPhone.

8 posted on 12/18/2010 6:10:35 PM PST by the invisib1e hand (oy. Again I say, oy.)
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To: arthurus
This sort of thing does not help to convince me that I should get a cell phone.

Ya ain't missing nothing.

If ya need to know anything worth knowing, just ask a FReeper.

9 posted on 12/18/2010 6:12:16 PM PST by bigheadfred (STAND IN THE CLOSET AND SCREAM WITH ME)
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To: cripplecreek

Did you know that all gmail chats are archived? Click chat at gmail and find out more.


10 posted on 12/18/2010 6:17:46 PM PST by Chickensoup (I am no longer Republican or Democrat, I am Conservative.)
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To: bigheadfred

the regular cell phone is enough for me.

Letsee, my car has a black box that can reconstruct.

All the streetlights have tv monitors

At work we have dozens of cameras

Facebook and othersites log me

My phone can tell someone where I am

and who I called.

My bank logs all my monies and payers and payees

Anything that I am missing?


11 posted on 12/18/2010 6:21:30 PM PST by Chickensoup (I am no longer Republican or Democrat, I am Conservative.)
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To: Chickensoup

.....Anything that I am missing?.....

your innermost thoughts are on display on Free Repulic


12 posted on 12/18/2010 6:43:28 PM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. N.C. D.E. +12 .....( History is a process, not an event ))
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To: bert

That is true.

And I love you....sweetie.


13 posted on 12/18/2010 6:46:46 PM PST by Chickensoup (I am no longer Republican or Democrat, I am Conservative.)
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To: LibWhacker

Thus why I don’t have an I-Phone or a Droid. I only use wireless for voice comms. Also no need for Facebook/MySpace?whathaveyou.


14 posted on 12/18/2010 6:58:12 PM PST by Fred Hayek (FUBO! I salute you with the soles of my shoes.)
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To: LibWhacker

“Google’s main mobile-ad network is AdMob, which it bought this year for $750 million. AdMob lets advertisers target phone users by location, type of device and “demographic data,” including gender or age group.

A Google spokesman says AdMob targets ads based on what it knows about the types of people who use an app, phone location, and profile information a user has submitted to the app. “No profile of the user, their device, where they’ve been or what apps they’ve downloaded, is created or stored,” he says.”

AdMob, what a name. If you believe “No profile of the user, their device, where they’ve been...”, I got a bridge for sale.


15 posted on 12/18/2010 7:03:03 PM PST by steveab (When was the last time someone tried to sell you a CO2 induced climate control system for your home?)
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To: LibWhacker
Most cell phones are traceable via tower pings. Turning off the phone does nothing.

To render the older phones untraceable, one must remove the battery.

Or just smash the thing.

The newer phones not only ping cell towers, they are traceable via gps, down to the meter, in real time. I would not be surprised to learn that many of the newer units have internal backup battery systems to maintain clock and date functions (and tracability) should the battery be removed.

16 posted on 12/18/2010 7:04:38 PM PST by mmercier (this is a long distance call)
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To: LibWhacker
Is that a mole in your pocket, or are they just glad to see you?


17 posted on 12/18/2010 7:25:07 PM PST by BlueDragon
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To: LibWhacker; cripplecreek; Soothesayer9
"Grindr, an iPhone app for meeting gay men, sent gender, location and phone ID to three ad companies."
18 posted on 12/18/2010 7:31:25 PM PST by B4Ranch (Do NOT remain seated until this ride comes to a full and complete stop! We're going the wrong way!)
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To: Chickensoup

I really try to limit myself.

Our landline doesn’t work right. It only rings once. Thought about looking into getting it fixed.

But I don’t care.

They can watch me all they want.

I don’t care.

The only site I’m on is this one.

You can watch me all you want.

I don’t care.

HEY! My daughter just rolled in, ummmm, with 3 friends.

I guess I otta put some pants on...


19 posted on 12/18/2010 7:54:09 PM PST by bigheadfred (STAND IN THE CLOSET AND SCREAM WITH ME)
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To: LibWhacker; ~Kim4VRWC's~; 1234; 50mm; Abundy; Action-America; acoulterfan; AFreeBird; Airwinger; ...
Is your smartphone watching you and reporting on you? PING!

Please, No Flame Wars!
Discuss technical issues, software, and hardware.
Don't attack people!

Don't respond to the Anti-Apple Thread Trolls!
 PLEASE IGNORE THEM!!!

 


Apple & Android Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

20 posted on 12/18/2010 9:43:57 PM PST by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft product "insult" free zone.)
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