Analysis of a Flashlight iPhone app can ask for a “shocking” amount of user data when you download it, tapping everything from a calendar to my phone’s location engine to a camera.
According to Robert McMillan, writing for Wired, said that a Flashlight app was designed do location tracking, read my calendar, use my camera, gain access to unique numbers that identify my phone, and then share data with a number of ad networks, including Google’s AdMob, iAd and JumpTap.
However hardware makers seem to be learning that this is a problem that they’re going to have to address. Apple has made it pretty easy to control which services your apps are able to use, by allowing users to go into Setting–>Privacy–> and being able to switch apps off and on. “When I did this, I discovered that a second Flashlight app, this one made by Lemondo Entertainment, had requested access to my phone’s Microphone and location services.”
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