Apple And Google Are Being Investigated Over App Privacy Concerns - Report
April 4, 2011
According to MarketWatch, a federal grand jury is investigating Apple and Google over information sharing by mobile applications. This information came to light when online music service Pandora, Inc. received a subpoena in the case earlier this year.
An unnamed Pandora representative stated:
"We were served with a subpoena to produce documents in connection with a federal grand jury, which we believe was convened to investigate the information sharing processes of certain popular applications that run on the Apple and Android mobile platforms. We believe that similar subpoenas were issued on an industry-wide basis to the publishers of numerous other smartphone applications."Nothing beyond the probe centering on Apple and Google is know at this time. However, Razorianfly believes it has to do with the ability of App Store developers to collect user data without their prior approval or consent. In December, The Wall Street Journal published an interactive report examining the type of personal information collected from 101 of the top selling iOS and Android apps. At the time, we called the practice disturbing since many of the most popular apps collected some combination of location, unique serial number like identifiers for the phone, and personal details such as age and sex. What do you think? Leave your comments below.