A criminal investigation has been launched in the US into suspected privacy lapses in the applications that run on Apple and Google smartphones, says the maker of one of the most popular mobile apps.
Pandora Media, which produces a free streaming music service, said that it had received a subpoena in connection with the probe, which it said was industry-wide and covered “numerous other smartphone applications”. It said it had been told it was not “a specific target of the investigation”.
The suspicion of criminal behaviour involving data in apps hits at one of the most successful technological advances in the era of touchscreen smartphones and tablet computers.
The small pieces of code, used for everything from playing games to tapping into news and entertainment, have become a staple of smartphones.
Studies in the past year have shown that applications for Apple’s iPhone and devices running Google’s Android operating system take more information from users than the programs disclose.
That has raised concerns among privacy advocates, who fear that the information gleaned can be especially potent when it includes location data or calling records. “We found a number of apps – much more than we would have expected – would share location information with [advertisers] beyond the users’ knowledge,” said Chris Enck, a researcher at Pennsylvania State University who worked on a study into Android apps.
He added that many apps also ask users to enter extra information about themselves and might pass that on to advertising networks as well, although it was hard for companies such as Apple and Google to control.
Scott Kamber, who filed a consumer lawsuit seeking class action status against Pandora, other app makers and Apple last year, said: “This is a particularly interesting example of just how much is happening on people’s phones that the average consumer is completely unaware of.”
Pandora said the subpoena it had received came from a federal grand jury, but declined to comment further on the information demand.
The proceedings of grand juries, which are called to decide on whether formal criminal charges should be brought, are normally kept secret, but Pandora disclosed the investigation in a regulatory filing in connection with a planned initial public offering.
The inquiry is reported to be being conducted by the US Attorney for New Jersey, although it declined to confirm or deny the probe.
Criminal privacy cases are exceedingly unusual.
According to Pandora, the investigation is into “the information sharing processes of certain popular applications”.
By Richard Waters and Joseph Menn taken from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4acb7c8a-5eed-11e0-a2d7-00144feab49a.html#axzz1IeXk8dN1
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