Your Flashlight App Is Tracking You and Mining Your Data.

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WHAT?

So. Some of you may remember that I don’t use a cell phone for a variety of reasons as outlined in the thread. But I am heavily into flashlights. This question sometimes come up here and at places like BLF, “Why should I EDC a flashlight when I have the flashlight app on my phone?”

Here is a good a reason as any.

“What is going on, according to experts, is that applications like Angry Birds and even more innocuous-seeming software, like that which turns your phone into a flashlight, defines words, or delivers Bible quotes, are also collecting personal information, usually the user’s location and sex and the unique identification number of a smartphone. But in some cases, they cull information from users’ contact lists and pictures from their photo libraries.”

The emphasis was added by me, of course.

The quote came from the first article linked below. I included some others, in case you are interested

Simple smart-phone apps adept at complex data mining
Nearly 35% of Android Apps Are Secretly Stealing Private Data, Says China’s Latest DCCI Report
Smartphone Apps Quietly Using Phone Microphones And Cameras To Gather Data

I learned about this while listing to talk radio on my long commute. That conversation was based on how much money Angry Birds is making, but that it didn’t mostly come from the selling of the app or the merchandising. It mainly comes from selling your personal info. It was then mentioned that a large percentage of apps, including most “free” apps are doing the same thing to one degree or another. The host mentioned that even the lowly flashlight app was doing it.

This led to my own research, some of which I linked to above. Whether or not you care about being spied on, you should at least be aware of it.

And for Pete’s sake, buy a real flashlight!

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