By Shaq Udomwong
Nowadays, a lot of people use smartphones and download many applications and don’t know the harm of these apps. Many smartphone users may not think that the harmless looking app like angry birds will track your location and steal your personal information.
According to the research from Carnegie Mellon University which looked at the data from the most popular apps in Google’s Android store, they found a big surprise that many apps steal users’ information and violate their privacy.
One of the most popular app, Angry Birds, tracks users’ location and device IDs. A lot of people were confused that why the game needed their personal information. The Dictionary.com app collects the users’ location info and they also know what words the users look up. Another popular apps that gather the users’ private information include Pandora Internet Radio, Shazam Music, Horoscopes and Flashlight.
Most of the reasons that these apps violate the users’ privacy because of the advertising reasons. They collect your location and gender, so the advertisers can better target you. According to the research, many people were okay with the advertising reasons. However, it’s not safe for the users when their personal information were stolen. They might use your information for illegal propose.
Some of the app makers collect the users’ personal information and they make it legal by put some small text to tell the users’ in the apps’ description where the users didn’t notice it. This research is so useful to all smartphones users, so we can know the harmful and be careful to download these apps.
Nowadays, a lot of people use smartphones and download many applications and don’t know the harm of these apps. Many smartphone users may not think that the harmless looking app like angry birds will track your location and steal your personal information.
According to the research from Carnegie Mellon University which looked at the data from the most popular apps in Google’s Android store, they found a big surprise that many apps steal users’ information and violate their privacy.
One of the most popular app, Angry Birds, tracks users’ location and device IDs. A lot of people were confused that why the game needed their personal information. The Dictionary.com app collects the users’ location info and they also know what words the users look up. Another popular apps that gather the users’ private information include Pandora Internet Radio, Shazam Music, Horoscopes and Flashlight.
Most of the reasons that these apps violate the users’ privacy because of the advertising reasons. They collect your location and gender, so the advertisers can better target you. According to the research, many people were okay with the advertising reasons. However, it’s not safe for the users when their personal information were stolen. They might use your information for illegal propose.
Some of the app makers collect the users’ personal information and they make it legal by put some small text to tell the users’ in the apps’ description where the users didn’t notice it. This research is so useful to all smartphones users, so we can know the harmful and be careful to download these apps.