Researchers find Android apps can secretly track users' whereabouts

Researchers find Android apps can secretly track users' whereabouts

Researchers find Android apps can secretly track users' whereabouts

They created an algorithm that could place data taken from the sensors onto OpenStreetMap's maps of the world's roads to work out the five paths a phone could have travelled between any given points."Just using these sensors, which do not require permissions, we can infer where you live, where you have been, where you are going," said Noubir.The researchers tested the app by simulating road trips around 11 cities, including Berlin, London, Rome, Boston and Atlanta, while the app tracked their phones' position, the angles of turns and the trajectory of curves.

How to find your lost Android phone?

How to find your lost Android phone?

In this era when your mobile phone is your personal secretary having all details of your personal profiles, email addresses and many more.In this situation what you will do if your phone lost?No one think of loosing his/her phone containing personal information.

Researchers find that Android apps can secretly track users' whereabouts

Researchers find that Android apps can secretly track users' whereabouts

New research led by Northeastern professor Guevara Noubir reveals that some Android apps may automatically transmit sensitive information, such as the routes you travel, through the phone's built-in sensors.A malicious developer, he says, "can infer where you live, where you've been, where you are going." Image by Younghee Jang/Northeastern UniversityThree years ago, the Fed­eral Trade Com­mis­sion dimmed hopes for the Brightest Flash­light app for Android, slap­ping its devel­oper with charges of con­sumer decep­tion.The app was trans­mit­ting users' loca­tions and device IDs to third par­ties without telling the users or get­ting their permission.