Big Brother's watching you
Fandroids' locations are being tracked via their handsets, just like their fanboy brethren - according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
You may have read on Pocket-lint on Thursday how research suggested that, after the iOS 4 release, iPhone and iPad customers' privacy could be at risk as the devices were said to track the users' location.
Well, now it's Google's turn to feel the boot of the security watchdog brigade as the WSJ report suggests that its Android handsets too are guilty of regularly tracking users' location data.
According to research by security analyst Samy Kamkar, a HTC handset (exact model unspecified) running? Android (version unspecified) logged its location "every few seconds" and subsequently sent the data to the Big G "at least several times an hour".
The report states that the data included not only locations but names and signal strength of any nearby Wi-Fi networks, along with the unique phone identifier.
The WSJ also hired an independent consultant to review Kamkar's (a former hacker who once crashed MySpace) findings who confirmed the details.
The Guardian is also reporting a separate programmer's findings, which state that "Android devices keep a record of the locations and unique IDs of the last 50 mobile masts that it has communicated with, and the last 200 Wi-Fi networks that it has seen".
It's not the first time Google has been caught collecting locale data either. It has been involved in some pretty high profile global disputes with regards to Wi-Fi data collected by its StreetView cars as well.
Tags: ios Security Internet Online Google Android Apple iPhone HTC
Google also tracking location data with Android originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:02:00 +0100
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