This question sometimes come up here and at places like EDCF, “Why should I EDC a flashlight when I have the flashlight app on my phone?”
Here is a good a reason as any.
“What is going on, according to experts, is that applications like Angry Birds and even more innocuous-seeming software, like that which turns your phone into a flashlight, defines words, or delivers Bible quotes, are also collecting personal information, usually the user’s location and sex and the unique identification number of a smartphone. But in some cases, they cull information from users’ contact lists and pictures from their photo libraries.”
The emphasis was added by me, of course.
The quote came from the first article linked below. I included some others, in case you are interested
I learned about this while listing to talk radio on my long commute. That conversation was based on how much money Angry Birds is making, but that it didn’t mostly come from the selling of the app or the merchandising. It mainly comes from selling your personal info. It was then mentioned that a large percentage of apps, including most “free” apps are doing the same thing to one degree or another. The host mentioned that even the lowly flashlight app was doing it.
This led to my own research, some of which I linked to above. Whether or not you care about being spied on, you should at least be aware of it.
I would like to throw out that their are ways to combat this. If your iphone is jailbroken you can install FirewallIP (what I did), this means a bubble will pop up whenever an app tries to access the internet or if it asks for your UDID, from there you can either allow it to or deny it to access the internet. And since there are a few apps that need your UDID to access them, you can easily fake the UDID for that app specifically so as to give them false information.
That works too ;) , however it seems to me that as time passes the need for this type of thing is going to increase, so IMHO it is better to know how to combat these problems and protect yourself effectively then to simply abstain from portable technology as a whole. After all, how is this different then what happens every single time you turn on your computer?
after I folded up a tin foil hat, I went through my apps and checked permissions, then added avg and let it scan away, it found one suspect app, colour ripple toddler game, thats gone now.
I also added avg to mrs gords’ phone, I’ll go through the apps when she’s done dealing with her brother’s marriage break down……
one thing I do like is avg can block numbers you mark as spam, which could be useful.
next is to check my step sons phone, see what he’s being targeted with…
sorry I’m on my phone, I just went into google store, searched for app scanner and it came up, I then searched for avg on mrs gords’ phone and it popped up.
I like it because my pc (when it actually gets switched on) is also on avg and has been for years.
its free for fifteen days too, then you need to upgrade to the pro version to keep a few features.
I definitely like the spam number blocker, sick of being asked about ppi, car loans and accident claims tbh.
The phone blocking feature sounds great. I already have Titanium Backup Pro so wouldn’t need to upgrade. I stopped using AVG on my PC as it became quite intrusive.
Of-course that’s what it does, many many apps do that just like FB and others track you online……geezz I thought everyone knew this and took measures to prevent/block these things; the worst ones are the freebie…why do you think it’s “free” remember the age old saying “there is no such thing as a free lunch” and when you act accordingly it won’t be a problem. Maybe it’s me. but I’ve been around computers for practically forever and thought most understand this principal……nothing is really free, tons of money are made by marketing/data mining off of you.
Example I never allow apps on FB such as games and all the other junk everyone tries to get me to accept their invitations to accept, I block them all; funny how they get all the spam mail & malware and wonder why.