Ads in popular apps exposed a mountain of your location data to hackers

[phillynews215]

• Hackers have stolen a database that appears to include location data from tens of millions of devices.
• This location info seems to have originated from the ad-bidding process used by popular apps.
• While the FTC has already attempted to limit the ability of companies to gather this data, more work is needed.

Of all the types of personal information that we like to limit who gets access to, location data has to be right up there at the top of the list. This is exactly why platforms like Android try to be very explicit with privacy permissions, offering users transparency over how apps are able to read their location. But now a concerning new report is shining a spotlight on ways that third parties have been taking advantage of many popular apps to follow our movements.

When you’re using an app like Tinder, granting permission to your location makes perfect sense; the app wants to connect us with people in our area, so it has to know where everybody is. And if you’re smart, you take a moment to read through the app’s data management policies, clarifying exactly what it intends to do with your location info, and how long it plans to save it. But how much concern do you pay to the advertisements that run within these apps?




More...