Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Apple : Are iPad and iPhone apps leaking personal data?

Apple : Are iPad and iPhone apps leaking personal data?

Are iPad and iPhone apps leaking personal data?

Posted: 29 Dec 2010 04:39 AM PST

Apple is facing two class actions lawsuit in the US from complainants that claim that app developers have been leaking personally identifiable data from their iPads and iPhones.

The aggrieved iPad and iPhone users say that Apple needs to do more to enforce its privacy policies.

Mobile web browsing history

Complainants in the latest lawsuits against Apple claim that the data harvested by some app developers represent "personal, identifying information" that very easily allows advertisers to track an individual's app use, web browsing history and other personal information.

The lawyers behind one of the class action lawsuits are also considering legal action against Google over similar personal data leaks from Android phone apps.

Backflip Studios (the makers of the popular Paper Toss game), the Weather Channel, Dictionary.com and a number of other mobile apps others have been named as potential data-leaking culprits in the lawsuits.

Non-anonymised data

Researchers from Bucknell University recently proved that so-called "anonymized" demographic information from app developers can be pieced together using an iPhone's unique UDID number to effectively identify individual users.

"Researchers have known for more than a decade that gender plus ZIP code plus birthdate uniquely identifies a significant percentage of Americans," adds law professor Paul Ohm.

However, some analysts are dismissive of the latest class action lawsuits against Apple.

Trip Chowdhry, Global Equities research analyst, told Reuters:"If this were a major issue, all web browsers would have to shut down and there would not be any advertising on the internet."

Patent points towards touchscreen Apple MacBooks

Posted: 29 Dec 2010 01:18 AM PST

Apple has been granted a new integrated touchscreen patent, pointing towards the possible development of touchscreen MacBooks.

The details of the patent were unearthed by the folks over at patentlyapple – detailing plans for an integrated touchscreen relating to touch-sensing circuitry integrated into the display pixel stackup of a display.

20 new Apple patents

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a total of 20 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. this week.

In addition to a number of new Apple patents relating to its photo-centric Aperture application and a key on-chip decompression engine relating to the iPhone's A4 processor, it is this 'integrated touchscreen' tech patent that is of most interest.

The patent also mentions a number of end-user examples of devices that the tech relates to, including uses on mobile phones, media players and notebooks.

Apple has of course not commented publicly to date on any official plans for a touchscreen MacBook, but this patent is one of the most convincing examples to date that such a device must be in development somewhere in one of its Cupertino HQ's many secret labs.
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