Got an App for Violating Your Privacy?! ~ Advertising For Success

Before you download another "app for that," you may want to delve into how your number and other personal information is shared by these apps. The ease of use of these sophisticated communication devices, such as iPhone, Android and Blackberry, as well as the plethora of applications available, may be blinding users to privacy issues.

MediaPost Publications Mobile Apps Leak Consumer Data 08/02/2010-read complete article

Up to four million consumers of Android phones have downloaded wallpaper apps that take personal data from the phone and transmit it to a Chinese-owned server. A pair of developers created more than 80 wallpaper apps, including "callmejack" and "IceskYsl@1sters!" that have accessed personal data. One application sent data to a Web site in Shenzhen, China.

Lookout, a mobile security data company, found that dozens of Android applications (millions of downloads) often transmit confidential information without the user being aware of it. Information such as cell phone number, voice mail phone number, PIN and serial number of SIM card.

Lookout also scanned nearly 300,000 free applications for the Apple iPhone and other phones built around Google's Android software. Many of these applications also transmit personal data as well. Mobile apps on other platforms, including BlackBerry and Symbian, can also potentially gather sensitive data.