An analysis of the transactions that come from Zscaler's security-protected devices reveals that iOS apps leak users' personal information more often than Android applications.
The result of this study shows that the generally accepted theory that iOS wants to be safer than Android does not necessarily apply to applications running on these two platforms.
According to data gathered in the last quarter, Zscaler reports that he detected about 200.000 transactions from a set of 45 million, where an application leaked user data.
The type of information leaked includes personally identifiable information (PII) ie its number mobile and email addresses post officey, geographic location data (longitude and latitude coordinates), and device metadata (IMEI, MAC, IMSI numbers, Network, OS, SIM card information and manufacturer).
The greatest amount of leakage was observed by iOS applications. Zscaler reports that 26 watched millions of transactions from iOS devices and their applications, of which 0,5 percent leaked user data to a total of 130.000 businesses.
The vast majority of leaked data, 72,3 per cent, was related to information about the user's device. In addition, 27,5% of transactions were leaked by geo-location coordinates, while only 0,2% of the applications leaked PII or personally identifiable information data.
Το 70 τοις εκατό του συνόλου των συναλλαγών που διέρρευσαν προσωπικά δεδομένα των χρηστών ήταν προήλθαν από συσκευές iOS στην Κίνα, και 20 τοις εκατό σε συσκευές στη Νότια Αφρική. Οι USA, Britain and the Republic of Ireland occupy the next top 5 positions.
With regard to Android apps, Zscaler reports that 20 watched millions of transactions and leaked them from 0.3% user data, or about 60.000 transactions.
Of these, 58% were device metadata, 39,3% geo-location, and 3% leaked sensitive PII data or personally identifiable information.
Most of the leaks occurred from Android devices in the US (55%), United Kingdom (16%) and China (12%).
