Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!mx02.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: jimp@specsol.spam.sux.com Newsgroups: sci.physics Subject: Re: Data privacy in app-verse challenging: study Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2015 18:28:38 -0000 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 50 Sender: Jim Pennino Message-ID: References: Injection-Info: mx02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="db4120ef82bbc153014637d4cd15a795"; logging-data="24343"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/AGKFqnrn32H8zx9YneeS9" User-Agent: tin/2.2.1-20140504 ("Tober an Righ") (UNIX) (SunOS/5.10 (i86pc)) Cancel-Lock: sha1:YF7Y4pWv+kwMNLGigPf8Mmgplbk= Xref: csiph.com sci.physics:531830 Sam Wormley wrote: > Data privacy in app-verse challenging: study >> http://phys.org/news/2015-11-privacy-app-verse.html > > > >> The research, focusing on Android applications and not Apple's iOS >> apps, which are on a more tightly guarded system, said a relatively >> small number of apps dominate the ecosystem. >> >> It found 47 percent of all apps available in the Google Play Store >> had been installed fewer than 500 times, while 11 apps were >> downloaded more than 500 million times. >> >> The research underscored growing privacy concerns about smartphone >> applications and their ability to glean data from users. >> >> A separate study last month by university researchers found 73 >> percent of Android apps shared personal information such as email >> addresses with third parties, and 47 percent of iOS apps shared >> location data with third parties. >> >> Apple has in some cases removed applications that share data with >> third parties without user permission. >> >> But the researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, >> Harvard and Carnegie Mellon University said much of the sharing of >> data was not disclosed. >> >> "Given the popularity of apps on smartphones, consumers worry about >> how much personal information apps share," they wrote in the Journal >> of Technology Science. >> >> The Pew research found the average application asks for five >> permissions, with the most popular one simply accessing the >> connectivity of the smartphone. >> >> The majority of the permissions related to allowing apps to access >> hardware functions of the device such as controlling the vibration >> function, while 70 allowed apps to access some kind of personal >> information. >> What do you call a smartphone owner with lots of apps? An identity theft victem. -- Jim Pennino