Is your smartphone a tattletale?

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 29 July 2010 12:44

Your IT - Mobility

A security vendor claims many Android and iPhone apps are able to access sensitive data stored on the devices, and may be secretly sending it to remote servers.

Lookout, a developer of security software for mobile services, claims around one third of free apps are able to access a user's location, while around one tenth can access contact data.

These findings come from Lookout's App Genome Project, an attempt to analyse security threats in mobile apps. Nearly 300,000 free apps have already been scanned, with nearly 100,000 fully mapped.

"The App Genome Project is an important step in securing our mobile phones against threats. With a real time database, we can quickly identify threats in the wild and swiftly move to protect consumers," said CEO John Hering.

"Early results point to the need for developers to be more aggressive about protecting consumers' personal information, including what information is accessed, what is sent off the phone and how it is stored," he added.

Of the free apps examined so far, 29% of those on Android have the capability to access a user's location, compared with 33% of free applications on iPhone; and 8% on Android can access contact data, compared with 14% on iPhone.

Is that really a problem? Please read on.