Apps regularly spy on users; Android moreso than iOS

A study found that it's now the norm for smartphone apps to "spy" on their users, reporting what they do on their devices while the software is running.

The research, conducted by MIT, Carnegie-Mellon and Harvard, examined the behavior of 110 titles and found that 73 percent of Android apps and 47 percent of the iOS apps reported the user's location. 49 percent of Android apps share personally-identifying information, whereas 25 percent of iOS apps do.

The key revelation is they're not just phoning home: some of the Apps are leaking data to more than a dozen different domains.

Privacy International said it was more evidence of how devices "betray us".The study, Who Know What About Me? A Survey of Behind the Scenes Personal Data Sharing to Third Parties by Mobile Apps, tested 55 of the most popular Android apps and the same number of iOS apps.The researchers recorded the HTTP and HTTPS traffic that occurred while using the different apps and looked for transmissions that included personally identifiable information, behavioural data such as search terms and location data.