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More Than 25% of Android Apps Know Too Much About You
CowboyRobot writes "A pair of reports by Juniper and Bit9 confirm the suspicion that many apps are spying on users. '26 percent of Android apps in Google Play can access personal data, such as contacts and email, and 42 percent, GPS location data... 31 percent of the apps access phone calls or phone numbers, and 9 percent employ permissions that could cost the user money, such as incurring premium SMS text message charges... nearly 7 percent of free apps can access address books, 2.6 percent, can send text messages without the user knowing, 6.4 percent can make calls, and 5.5 percent have access to the device's camera.' The main issue seems to be with poor development practices. Only in a minority of cases is there malicious intent. The Juniper report and the Bit9 report are both available online."
It's a problem with Android, basically. Poop.
On iOS I can choose *after* installation to allow or disallow certain activities.
So.. for example.. I can allow an application access to my calendar but not to my contacts or photos.
How do you know that, by the time you disable the permission, the app hasn't already uploaded your info to their servers?
Android is a "take it or leave it" system. Which I suppose is great for the app developers.. but not so much for users.
Except, with Android, I can root my phone and do whatever the heck I want with it.
Is Apple still bricking jailbroken iShinys?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese