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Project reveals the Android apps that are the worst privacy violators

If you thought seemingly innocent apps like Angry Birds did not violate your privacy, you thought wrong. A new project reveals that many unexpected apps are guilty of breaching the privacy of many mobile users.

Mobile applications are fundamentally about making money for their creators, so if an app is free it still has to rake in the cash somehow. That fact leads to many apps relying on advertising to bring in that revenue.

The apps that collect revenue through advertising often share contact lists with third parties or even use the mobile user’s location to deliver targeted advertisements.

“These apps access information about a user that can be highly sensitive, such as location, contact lists and call logs, yet it often is difficult for the average user to understand how that information is being used or who it might be shared with,” Jason Hong, the leader of the new Privacy Grade project said in a press release. “Our privacy model measures the gap between people’s expectations of an app’s behavior and the app’s actual behavior.”

Since many mobile users are completely ignorant of this practice, the Carnegie Mellon University’s Computer Human Interaction: Mobility Privacy Security (CHIMPS) Lab created Privacy Grade.

Privacy Grade gives Android applications grades from A+ to D based on how much information the app gathers from a user’s device and how that gathering aligns with the user’s expectations.

IEEE Spectrum states that the grading model is based on the preference ratings of 725 users on 837 free Android apps.

The project clearly and simply lays out the permissions requested by a wide range of applications and what these permissions are used for. This helps users identify when apps request permission for information that allows internal app functionality versus advertising purposes or market/customer analysis.

The worst grades go to popular mobile games like Fruit Ninja Free and Despicable Me, both of which received a D grade.

Google’s apps, on the other hand, received high marks from Privacy Grade, with most of their applications receiving an A grade. This is somewhat surprising given the privacy breaches Google has been guilty of in the past. Furthermore, a recent report found that Americans are more concerned about data collection by Google than the NSA.

So far, the database does not include paid apps since the researchers believe they are much less likely to be seeking additional revenue from selling user data to third parties.

Additionally, Privacy Grade currently only covers Android apps but the researchers are currently considering adding apps on the iOS, Windows Mobile and Blackberry platforms if funding is available.

Do you use any of the apps covered by Privacy Grade? Are you surprised by the marks your favorite apps have received? Let us know by leaving a comment below, tweeting us or leaving a comment on our Facebook page.

End The Lie