50 Percent Of iPhone Apps Can Track User Data

50 Percent Of iPhone Apps Can Track User Data

According to a recent study by the Technical University of Vienna, around 50 percent of iPhone apps are capable of tracking user data including your iPhone’s unique device ID.

It should be pointed out that the study was conducted using a total of 1,400 iPhone applications, and it found that over 50 percent, 750 of those 1400 apps collected the 40 digit unique iPhone identifier.

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Some of the applications even ‘blatantly compromised privacy’ as they accessed user location information without having the users persmission, and five of the applications tested even took information from users address books.

This could mean that unscrupulous developers could collect information about you from your iPhone without your permission, although it seems that the majority of the applications that were used in the study were actual free apps.

Fast Company via TFTS

What do you think?

  • J Glenn

    Android apps can do the same thing. But with Android apps from the Market, Google’s app store, you can view what is monitored by the app before you download it. And that’s with a device that is “open” as apposed to iPhone’s “closed” system.