Apps on Apple and Android smartphones leak lots of users’ information to third parties, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard, and Carnegie-Mellon universities have found.  They studied 110 apps available on Google Play and the Apple App Store and found 73% of the Android apps shared users’ email addresses, and 47% of the iOS apps shared location data.

Source: BBC Tech News

Date: November 30th, 2015

Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34732514

Discussion

1) The research found that 93% of the Android apps tested connected to the domain safemovedm.com, but “The purpose of this domain connection is unclear at this time; however, its ubiquity is curious.” “When we used the phone without running any app, connections to this domain continued.”   93% of apps sending your data to a domain that no one knows why seems like an amazing high number.  Why might these apps be sending data?

2) Most people thing Apple is safer because apps to their store have to be approved, but almost half of all the Apple apps are sharing location data.  What might companies be doing with your location data?