I found a very interesting article today linked from the Wall Street Journal. The Journal did a set of tests on popular iPhone and Android apps to find out what personal information is being collected and sent back to the developer or third party companies about you, sometimes without your consent. The info-graphic is pretty alarming. I found several apps I use frequently – like Angry Birds and Bejeweled on the list. I also found apps like Facebook, Google Maps and even LifeChurch’s Bible app that are reporting back and sharing some of your information. For its part, Facebook only reports back to its developer and the information is not shared. In some cases, it is as simple as your device’s ID that gets sent back, but marketers are surely using this information to track and build profiles on users. In many cases, your location is sent back. Luckily, I believe that Apple’s Location Services privacy settings saves many of us unknowingly sending our location to markets to track our movements and usage.
The information for WSJ is pretty details – and you should check it out yourself: http://blogs.wsj.com/wtk-mobile/
