Smartphone use has accelerated overtime and now, everybody you know owns a smartphone. As opposed to traditional phones, smartphones have a lot to offer. However, with smartphone use, authorities concerned have also been warning people of their information being stolen by the apps which they use on smartphones.
On Thursday, the FTC, Federal Trade Commission, issued a warning that smartphone applications can breach the privacy of consumers and invade children’s privacy, catching their whereabouts, phone number, call logs, contacts and other things. Last week, news headlines also warned people of the same thing.
According to journalists and researchers, in recent times, famous applications such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Foodspotting, Twitter, Yelp, Path and others have been taking information of people, including their email address, phone numbers. These apps have also been copying the contacts of those who use the applications, as well as other information. Some of the applications involved took and copied the information without informing the users but some issued a warning before hand.
However, the report by Federal Trade Commission, which was on children software in the App Market on Android operating system and Apple’s App Store, didn’t reveal the apps which actually do information breaching as it said that there weren’t enough disclosures regarding the app that collects the data, what kind of data do they collect and what they turn the data into or do with it. Recently, Apple was confronted by two congressmen on the same matter, after they wrote a letter to Tim Cook, Apple’s Chief Executive Officer. Prior to this, Apple has remained silent on the matter.
Evolving technology has its advantages and disadvantages and this is one of the biggest disadvantages of evolving technology. Smartphone personal information breaching has been one of the biggest concerns of the consumers and concerned authorities but it seems as if there is nothing the customers can do about it.
