The mobile app genome project

Are you standing on the Rock of Salvation?

Source: http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk

Do you use many mobile apps? If so, the odds are that the private information on your phone has been collected and sent somewhere without your knowledge.

So says the App Genome Project, a mammoth study of more than 300,000 apps.

The study found that apps are tapping into personal data and accessing other phone resources without telling users.Amongst the conclusions:

• About 29 percent of the "free" apps on Android access a user’s location data
• 33 percent of the tens of thousands of free apps on the iPhone access location data
• About 14 percent of iPhone apps access personal contact data
• 8 percent of Android apps access personal contact data - the difference is largely due to the different security measures used by the two platforms.

Some findings are very alarming: an Android wallpaper app transmitted the user’s phone number to a Chinese developer, for no apparent reason. That app was downloaded by 50,000 people.

Another app automatically made the downloader's phone make calls to Somalia, resulting in huge bills.

Furthermore, a large proportion of apps contain third-party code which can interact with sensitive data in ways that may not be immediately apparent to users - or even to the developers of the apps themselves. So-called "third-party code" is generally used for creating advertising or analytics on apps. 47 percent of free Android apps included this third-party code, while 23 percent of free iPhone apps use it. Third-party code represents a security risk because it is difficult to update (and patch a vulnerability) on a global basis. Apple changed its terms of service for the iPhone recently because of its concerns about what third-party analytics and other companies were doing with private data.

By Alex Deane

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Isaiah 55:6Make search for the Lord while he is there, make prayer to him while he is near:Isaiah 55:7Let the sinner give up his way, and the evil-doer his purpose: and let him come back to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for there is full forgiveness with him.
John 3:16For God had such love for the world that he gave his only Son so that whoever has faith in him may not come to destruction but have eternal life

God bless you!
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