Your Apps Are Watching You
Statistics say 1 in 2 Americans will have a smart-phone by December 2011. Many people keep their address, bank account numbers, passwords, PIN numbers and more stored in their phone. The mounds of information kept in smart-phones is more than enough to steal one’s identity with ease.
What most people don’t consider are the applications that they are using on a daily basis. What information is stored there? According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, more than you think.
After examining over 100 popular apps, they found that 56 transmit the phone’s unique device ID to companies without the user’s knowledge. Forty-seven of the applications transmitted the phone’s actual location, while five sent other personal information such as age and gender. This shows how many times your privacy is potentially compromised without your knowledge, just by playing music on Pandora.
Here are a few of the culprits:
- Textplus 4 is a popular text messaging app. It sent the unique phone ID to over 7 different ad companies.
- Pandora, a popular music application for both smart-phones and computers sends age, gender, location and phone ID to many advertisers.
- Paper Toss sends your phone ID to 5 different advertisers.
Opening Pandora’s Privacy Box
I am a huge fan and frequent user of Pandora, the internet radio station that plays songs based on learned music preferences (if you like the Avett Brothers, it knows you will probably also like Dave Matthews, etc.). Pandora is an overwhelmingly popular online radio network app for computers, smart phones and the iTouch. It provides listeners with an informed collection of songs and play-lists based on a comprehensive analysis of over 400 qualities of a song that make it specifically appealing to you. While the financial cost to users appears at first site to be nothing (if you don’t mind the occasional ad), the privacy cost can be exponentially high with Pandora selling your web-surfing habits to advertisers.
Pandora clearly states in its FAQ that they are sharing information such as your age and gender with advertisers.
“…the free version of Pandora is mostly supported by advertisements, and we want to be able to show the most relevant ads to our listeners… Since this means that you’re more likely to see an ad that’s relevant to you, we hope it’s a good thing for our listeners as well as for our advertisers, and therefore also for Pandora as a whole.”
Information Security Speaker: 5 Information Espionage Hotspots Threatening Businesses
You and your business are worth a lot of money, whether your bank accounts show it or not. The goldmine lies in your data, and everyone wants it. Competitors want to hire the employee you just fired for the thumb drive full of confidential files they smuggled out. Data thieves salivate over your Facebook profile, which provides as a “how to” guide for exploiting your trust. Cyber criminals are digitally sniffing the wireless connection you use at Starbucks to make bank transfers and send “confidential” emails.
Every business is under assault by forces that want access to your valuable data: identity records, customer databases, employee files, intellectual property, and ultimately, your net worth. Research is screaming at us—more than 80% of businesses surveyed have already experienced at least one breach (average recovery cost: $6.75 million) and have no idea of how to stop a repeat performance. These are clear, profit-driven reasons to care about who controls your data.
Here are 5 Information Espionage Hotspots that your business should address now:
Identity Theft Training
John Sileo knows identity theft and data breach first hand – he became “America’s Leading Identity Theft Speaker and Expert” after losing his business and more than $300,000 to these costly crimes. He has provided these Identity Theft Resources to help you protect your organization from suffering from the losses that result from unprotected private information. Visit John’s Identity Theft Prevention Store to learn more.
Hire John to train your employees to prevent identity theft, data breach and corporate espionage
Safe data is profitable data, whether it’s a client’s credit card number, a patient’s medical file, an employee’s benefit plan or sensitive intellectual capital. By the time John finishes his hilarious closing story, your audience will be fully empowered to protect private information, at home and at work.
John’s Most Requested Identity Theft Training Presentations (Keynote Topics)
Think Like a Spy
Information Survival Skills
The biggest threat to our identities (and to valuable corporate data) is our lack of a Privacy Reflex. Few of us have ever been trained to respond appropriately when someone requests our sensitive information. Think of how easily you give your information away on the Internet when someone promises you a free gift. This presentation will give your audience the fundamental building blocks to proactively protect valuable information assets. The result is a safer individual with strategic privacy skills that protect your organization’s bottom line.
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