Some Android apps ‘misuse private information’
p2pnet view Mobiles:- Some Google Android applications have taken to sharing.
And that’s bad.
The TaintDroid is an “efficient, system-wide dynamic taint tracking and analysis system capable of simultaneously tracking multiple sources of sensitive data”.
So say its creators, William Enck and Patrick McDaniel, Pennsylvania State University; Landon P. Cox and Peter Gilbert, Duke University; Byung-Gon Chun, Jaeyeon Jung and Anmol N. Sheth, Intel Labs.
The team ran TaintDroid against 30 popular third-party Android apps and found “68 instances of potential misuse of users’ private information across 20 applications”, they say in their paper, TaintDroid: An Information-Flow Tracking System for Realtime Privacy Monitoring on Smartphones.
They chose “30 out of the 358 most popular Android apps that, when installed, ask for permission to get at location, camera and audio data”, says the BBC.
They logged what the applications did, it says, going on >>>
This revealed that 15 of the apps sent location information to advertisers but did not inform users that data was being shared. Some apps gathered and despatched location information even when an application was not running and some sent updates every 30 seconds.
One application gathered data and sent it as soon as it was installed but before it was run for the first time.
TaintDroid also found that seven of the apps shared unique identifiers, known as IMEI numbers, when sending data. Others despatched phone numbers or SIM card serial numbers.
This revealed that 15 of the apps sent location information to advertisers but did not inform users that data was being shared. Some apps gathered and despatched location information even when an application was not running and some sent updates every 30 seconds.
One application gathered data and sent it as soon as it was installed but before it was run for the first time.
TaintDroid also found that seven of the apps shared unique identifiers, known as IMEI numbers, when sending data. Others despatched phone numbers or SIM card serial numbers.
In a statement, the BBC has Google stating, “Android has taken steps to inform users of this trust relationship and to limit the amount of trust a user must grant to any given application developer.
“We also provide developers with best practices about how to handle user data.”
Oh rilly? 
Stay tuned.
BBC – Google Android apps found to be sharing data, September 30, 2010
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