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Personal data leaks found on Android apps
By siliconindia
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Friday, 08 October 2010, 13:00 IST |
4 Comments
Bangalore: In what came as a surprise to the android users, it is found that some Android apps are sending personal data to 'online advertisers' without user knowledge. TaintDroid, a new tool developed by the researchers to monitor 30 popular Android apps, found 68 instances of potential data misuse, reveals study conducted by a research team from Duke University, Penn State University and Intel Labs.
It revealed that some applications based on the open-source Android operating system are secretly opening up too much to advertisers. The study was conducted using the team's new, real-time privacy monitoring tool, TaintDroid. This new tool was used to monitor the behavior of 30 popular third-party Android applications, and it discovered 68 instances of 'potential misuse of users' private information across 20 applications' and a have transmitted location data and/or unique identifiers to advertisement servers.
Almost half of the 30 tested applications, users' locations were sent to remote advertising servers. Seven apps captured and relayed device IDs, phone numbers, and SIM card serial numbers. These apps sent new data as often as every 30 seconds, and sometimes transmitted information to advertisers even when ads weren't appearing onscreen.
TaintDroid alerts users when data is sent to outside sources. TaintDroid labels, or "taints," data originating from sources it considers private, and then logs the data as it travels through program variables, files and messages.
Responding to the findings of the new study, Google states that applications always ask for permission to access any personal information upon installation. However, it is not clear as to how or why they are using this information.
The study also reveals that Android devices aren't the only ones to do this and that iPhone shares similar information with ad servers. So, the authenticity of the privacy promises by the smartphone leaders are once again put to question.
