Some Android apps caught covertly sending GPS data to advertisers (ars technica)

Ars technica is reporting that some Android applications are surreptitiously sending GPS coordinates and other information to advertisers. The information comes from a recent study done by researchers from Penn State, Duke University, and Intel Labs. "They used TaintDroid to test 30 popular free Android applications selected at random from the Android market and found that half were sending private information to advertising servers, including the user's location and phone number. In some cases, they found that applications were relaying GPS coordinates to remote advertising network servers as frequently as every 30 seconds, even when not displaying advertisements. These findings raise concern about the extent to which mobile platforms can insulate users from unwanted invasions of privacy."

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