21
May
clueful

[Giveaway] Win One Of Two Galaxy S4 i9500s Or Two HTC Ones From BitDefender And Android Police

Posted by in Contests / Giveaways, Galaxy S4, One

Have you ever wondered just how private your data is? How protected your personal info is? For all you know, apps could be running off sharing your phone number, contact log, and device ID to third parties. Or even worse, they could be doing so over an unencrypted connection. I shudder at the very thought.

Fortunately, BitDefender has a new app called Clueful that aims to show users what their apps are really doing behind the scenes and how private their data is. It gives each device a Privacy Score based on the currently-installed apps, along with a simple breakdown of potential risks in three different categories: high, moderate, and low.

10
Apr
unnamed

[New App] Burner Disposable Phone Number App Comes With One Free, More Numbers Via IAP

Posted by in Applications, News

"Burner" cellphones, pre-paid phones that are used and discarded, have become a handy way to protect your identity if you find yourself dealing with people you might not otherwise want to meet. Just lately it has become possible to get "disposable" phones without the phone, thanks to apps like Hushed, which provides a limited-use virtual number that can be easily substituted for your real one. Burner is a new competitor in the same vein, happily landing on Android after considerable success on iOS.

unnamed unnamed (1) unnamed (2)

While the operation is similar, Burner is much more interested in the "use and lose" nature of its virtual phone numbers.

03
Apr
CyanogenMod-logo1

[Update: Never Mind!] CyanogenMod Will No Longer Allow Opting Out Of CM Stats – Cyanogen Says To Chill

Posted by in News

Update: So, scratch all that. Steve Kondik took to G+ today to say that CM will return the opt-out option and will not require users to share data. Though it's with a heavy heart, it seems. Expressing some exasperation, he had this to say on the matter:

It's incredibly frustrating that a handful of incredibly vocal users are ready to "fork" over the issue. News flash: there are already a hundred forks of CM... In the end though, we should respect everyone's wishes here.

CyanogenMod is one of the most popular Android ROMs as far as anyone can tell. It's actually hard to know for sure.

04
Sep
thumb

Popular Caller ID App 'Mr. Number' Forced To Disable Crowd-Sourced Caller ID Feature Due To A Change In Google's ToS

Posted by in Applications, News

We've all had this happen: your phone rings and the caller ID shows only a number because the contact isn't in your address book. You've no idea who it is, so you reluctantly answer. Turns out it's either someone you don't want to talk to, a wrong number, a bill collector, or some other person you'd have rather avoided.

Before today, an app called Mr. Number could've made that scenario play out a little bit differently. The app had a feature called crowd sourced caller ID, which - get this - shared your entire address book with other Mr. Number users.

02
Jul
image

Google Play Store Increases Transparency, Now Lets App Developers Publish Privacy Policies

Posted by in Apps/Games, News, Videos

One of the changes to the Play Store announced at Google I/O as "coming soon" was the ability for app developers to publish links to their privacy policies, thus making their intentions more transparent right out of the gate. By using Android apps, we allow a lot of personal information to travel through the tubes, and it's in everyone's best interests to disclose just what exactly happens to it in an open way.

Here's the relevant bit from the Google I/O session I was talking about earlier:

The privacy policy links are now live in both the updated Android app (version 3.7.11) and the Play Store website.

22
Feb
android_privacy_investigation_580

PSA: California's New App Privacy Policy Requirement Just Made Life Harder For Developers Everywhere, Here's What You Need To Know

Posted by in Android OS, Apps/Games, Development, Editorials, Legal, News

Privacy is a good thing in the digital world - you'll get no argument from me. I don't like my data floating around in cyberspace without my consent, but I also realize that much of what makes the internet (and computing generally) so great is that I can use my own judgment to decide who I will and will not trust with my information.

Things like app permissions, which have been a part of the Android package installation process for quite some time, are nice, but let's face it: 95% of us don't read them. And if we do, we may not even be sure what those permissions really entail, or how the app will use those permissions to gather information, or even what kind of information will actually be collected.

30
Jan
Im-just-a-bill

Mobile Device Privacy Act Wants To Require Carriers To Notify You Of Any Tracking Software On Your Phone

Posted by in Android OS, Carriers, Legal, News

Congress is a lot like a slot machine - once in a while, something good comes out. A new bill introduced by Representative Ed Markey of Massachusetts would require cellular carriers in the US to disclose to end users upon purchase of a mobile device any tracking software present on said device, or any such software that might be installed at a later date by the carrier, manufacturer, or OS provider (that would be Google for Android).

After the Carrier IQ debacle, the public has taken a heightened interest in the privacy of the information on their smartphone devices, and rightfully so.

04
Nov
hi-256-0-6d2fd447cf67cf0bd7fd5d32ed3078fdbd478a75

LBE Privacy Guard V2 Completely Revamped, Brings New Interface And Additional Features

Posted by in Applications, News

A few months ago, an app called LBE Privacy Guard landed in the Android Market, which allows for fine-tuned control off app permissions, data usage, and more. It looks like the developer of said app has been hard at work since then, as a new, completely redesigned version is now available. While the name may still be same, the updated version is an entirely different listing altogether, and the previous listing has become home to a Chinese-specific version of the app. Thus, users of version 1.x will have to uninstall it and install the newest version from the new listing.

27
Oct
image

[Updated x4: Issue Fixed] Privacy Advisory: Dolphin HD Sends URL Of Every Page You Visit To A Remote Server (In Plain-Text)

Posted by in Applications, News
Last Updated: October 29th, 2011

Hot on the heels of the previous privacy/security advisory about A.I.type Keyboard sending your keystrokes to the cloud in plain-text, some of our commenters pointed out another, much more popular app that does something similarly privacy-invading.

Description

As it turns out, Dolphin HD, one of the top browsers the Android platform has to offer, sends pretty much every web page url you visit, including those that start with https, to a remote server en.mywebzines.com, which belongs to the company. In fact, the WebZines feature was introduced only recently back in June with version 6.0, so it's safe to say this tracking started around the same time.

Page 1 of 212