The iPhone is one of the most popular mobile phones on the planet at the moment and Apple have built up a huge range of apps for the devices that will enable the user to do almost anything they want on the device. Now, it has been found that many of these iPhone apps are actually causing a privacy risk to the user as they have been found to be transmitting information about the user to third parties. This new study has alarmed many iPhone users around the world and it could even be the case with the iPod Touch.
This new study was carried out at the Duke University in Pennsylvania and has found that many of the iPhone apps that we know and love could be sending out personal information. In their study, the university tested 57 different applications for the iPhone and they found that out of these, a staggering 38 were found to be transmitting personal data. This is a whopping 68% of apps according to the study. They found that amongst the data that was being transmitted were the user’s phone number and their location. They also found that in a few cases, the apps would send out the users name to third party companies, thus risking the privacy of the users.
Apple has said that they instruct their developers to “not publicly associate a device’s unique identifier with a user account,” and that users of the iPhone and iPod Touch should always know what is being done with their data.