14 DAY TRIAL // While the iOS mobile operating system may be more secure than Google’s Android, a new Bitdefender study has found that iOS and Android applications can be equally intrusive and “curious.”
Bitdefender has used its Clueful technology to analyze 314,474 free Android apps and 207,843 free iOS applications.
Experts have found that over 45% of the iOS apps are capable of tracking locations, even if they don’t explicitly do it. Of the Android programs, 34% possess such capabilities.
Among the popular applications that have the ability to track locations, Bitdefender names Latest Nail Fashion Trends for Android, and PokerStars TV for iOS.
When it comes to reading contact lists, close to 8% of Android apps could do it. On the other hand, almost 19% of iOS apps are technically capable of reading contact lists.
As far as leaking email addresses and device IDs is concerned, around 14.58% of Android apps are capable of leaking device IDs, while 5.73% are capable of leaking email addresses.
“iOS applications appear to be more focused on harvesting private data than those designed for Android. Following the security incidents in 2012, when the Blue Toad advertising agency leaked one million UDIDs, Apple decided to deprecate the UDID API,” the report reads.
Finally, 8.82% of the Android applications analyzed by Clueful could leak the phone number of the devices they’re installed on.
“The free application ecosystem is actually free for the user, but is heavily monetized by the developer. Succinctly put, the application becomes free only after the user has paid for it with his or her privacy,” experts noted.
“And the situation is even worse, as paying for an application neither stops the private information flow, nor brings back the information already stored on file. More than that, information collection takes place without the user even being aware of what they agree with during installation.”