Updated when data about the geographic position of the user through an app is collected on his smartphone provides a new application.
The specific application, which allows this process without making any changes to the operating system system της συσκευής (rooting) γίνεται διαθέσιμη στον απόηχο των αποκαλύψεων της υπόθεσης Σνόουντεν, και ειδικότερα μετά τα τελευταία δημοσιεύματα περί εντοπισμού της γεωγραφικής θέσης χρηστών μέσω εφαρμογών που οι ίδιοι χρησιμοποιούν. Σύμφωνα με δημοσίευμα του MIT Technology Review, η διάδοσή της μπορεί να βοηθήσει τους απλούς χρήστες να κατανοήσουν την έκταση στην οποία είναι δυνατή η συλλογή προσωπικών δεδομένων τους από εφαρμογές, καθώς ακόμη και σε φαινομενικά «αθώες» περιπτώσεις, όπως παιχνιδιών και λεξικών, είναι δυνατή η detection of the user's location via GPS.
Although a small icon indicating access to information about the user's geographic location exists in various Android interfaces, few users pay attention, as most do not know what it means, according to study του Rutgers University, led by Janne Lindqvist, assistant professor. Lindqvist's team created an app that displays a banner that (obviously) informs the user when this happens.
In particular, Google has designed Android to block an app from gathering information about others. The Lindkist team used an indirect method, which "sees" when geographic location information is requested from an application. As the professor points out, this has been done in the past, but through changes in the functional: "no one used an application to do it," he says. This app is about to come out on Google Play within two months.
According to Lindkist, Android phone users who used the app were surprised by how often their location was tracked, and by what applications. The goal, in itself, is to encourage Google and application developers to be more transparent, to collect fewer data, and to allow users to choose what data an application can see.
It is noted that in many cases user location information is used for promotional purposes, such as sending "targeted" ads.
