A smartphone App. downloaded by 1.5 million people sends user data to an advertising company.
A smartphone application that gathers information on the location of its users was downloaded by more than 1.5 million people, and the data was sent to an advertising company in the United States, according to experts.
The application in question is a goldfish catching game that does not require any information about the user's location to play.
As the GPS data makes it possible to identify a user's location with a margin of error of several meters, it would be possible to presume the user's home or office address if such information was accumulated, they said.
An image showing what type of information is collected appears on the screen before installation, but only a small number of users correctly understand the explanations, the experts said.
There have been no guidelines available on information gathering for smartphones despite the rapid spread of the devices. This seems to have aggravated the situation.
According to an analysis by KDDI R&D Labs in Fujimino, Saitama Prefecture, at the request of The Yomiuri Shimbun, the free application released on the Internet last month was designed to send Global Positioning System information from smartphones to a U.S. advertising firm at a rate of about once per minute.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T111129005172.htm