Android, iOS apps skirt privacy policy to share user data with advertisers
Modern smartphone apps are resurrecting the spyware trend that plagued the web ten years ago, but today's users are often unable to do anything to block their demographic data from being used to enhance the advertisements they see.
A report by the Wall Street Journal, part of a series examining privacy issues in computing and in particular the web, examined 101 popular smartphone apps for both iOS and Android devices to find what data they were sharing with advertisers.
The study found that more than half (56) sent the devices' unique serial number to advertisers for tracking purposes, while 47 made some use of users' location data. Five of the apps sent users' "age, gender or other personal details" to outside sources.
