An Android app to track location-based applications

A team of researchers has developed an Android app to help people understand when their location is available for other applications, which happens more often than you think.

An application that traces the intrusive apps, this is the project of a team of five researchers. "All applications access location data without the need to ask permission to the Android platform," said Janne Lindqvist, who led the research project by email to our IDG NS colleagues. He added that "the problem is that people do not pay attention to this information by default." Android smartphones display GPS icon flashes when applications try to access the location of the user. Now scientists find that few people notice and understand the messages icon.

Based on this observation, the research team developing an application to solve this problem. They tried several methods, including the publication of a message that flashes on the screen "Your position is accessible by [application name]." They relied on the Android Location API. The application is not yet available on the Play Store. It does not have an official name, but the name chosen by the researchers is RutgersPrivacyApp. Janne Lindqvist declares open for a better proposal. The name of the application refers to Rutgers University in New Jersey where scientists tested their program. They also conducted a study on the behavior of people deal with intrusive applications.

The issue of data collection applications is not new and recent revelations about the U.S. government monitoring showed that intelligence could be used to spy applications, including games like Angry Birds, but also social media like Facebook and Twitter. The scientists wanted to understand how the publication of location information affecting user attitudes towards applications like Firefox or Intune Radio. Mostly, people were surprised at the behavior of some applications.