Apple last week was hit with another lawsuit regarding the privacy of its apps. California resident Anthony Chiu sued Apple for transmitting user information to third parties without permission.
Chiu pointed to the serial numbers Apple adds to each mobile device, known as the Unique Device Identifier (UDID), which he said are viewable to app developers. This UDID “allows the downloaded applications access to the user’s browsing history each time the user clicks on an advertisement or application appearing on their mobile device,” according to the suit, which was filed in California district court.
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Last month, another California man, Jonathan Lalo, filed a similar lawsuit, accusing Apple of producing devices that allow ad networks to track a user’s app activity.
Both men cited a Wall Street Journal study published in Decemberthat examined 101 mobile applications and found that iPhone apps distribute more personal data without the users’ permission than Android apps.
Chiu said he is an iPhone user who has downloaded a number of apps, but did not say whether he has any direct evidence that his personal information was transferred to third parties. Instead, he cited the possibility that app developers might have access to his Web activity.
“Anyone who has used a mobile device to browse the Internet to obtain advice about hemorrhoids, sexually transmitted disease, abortion, drug rehabilitation, or care for elderly; to search for jobs, seek out new romantic partners, engage in political activity; in fact, to do more or less anything; can be reasonably sure that the browsing history created by such investigation has been incorporated into a detailed dossier for sale to marketers,” according to the suit.
Apple’s activity gives online marketers “chilling access to the most intimate details of the user’s life, in order to exploit this otherwise private information to commercial advantage,” the suit said.
Chiu also took issue with the fact that Apple does not inform its users about how their UDID’s are utilized. He said Apple uses this information to help boost its iAd platform.
In December, Business Insider suggested that the Journal may have been exaggerating the threat of transmitting data back to an ad network.
“The WSJ story isn’t clear as to when the data is transmitted back to the app maker, or back to third party ad networks or analytics firms, which is quite different,” writes Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry. “Ad networks and analytics software take anonymous data and use it to perform targeting or find out how you use your device…targeting and analytics have been online for fifteen years now and it doesn’t seem to have hurt anybody.”
