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by John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

Android Apps Sucking Your Personal Data

December 29, 2014

It still amazes me that a smartphone app needs access to personal data in order to function. As an example, why does a car maintenance logging application need to access GPS information or your contacts and phone call logs? Apparently there are a lot of apps that access personal data. A recent report suggests that apps are collecting data in order to deliver targeted ads. Just what we need. Advertisements popping up when we approach a gas station or snack suggestions as we drive by a convenience store.

Call me crazy, but I only enable the GPS function on my phone when I need to use an app that REALLY needs it and then I turn it off. I know the cellular carrier knows where I am because of the E-911 requirement, but I don’t need Facebook or Google Play pinging my location over 50,000 times a month. Lesson to self…turn off GPS services and actually read the access permissions for each app.

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