An Android developer is going to settle charges with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over their free application masquerading as an innocent flashlight application that actually transmitted the “precise location” data of millions of users to third-party advertisers.

Android apps have been notorious for their invasions of privacy. Reports earlier this year revealed that the Facebook application for Android stole users’ phone numbers without... and in early 2012 the Facebook application was shown to spy on users’ text messages. An early 2013 report also showed that Google sent personal information to app developers without the knowledge or consent of users.

In this case, the application called “Brightest Flashlight Free,” downloaded between 50 and 100 million times, was shown to send location data to advertisers along with the unique device identifier, all without the user having any clue it was going on.

The app description on the Google Play store makes no mention of this practice.

The FTC complaint states that the developers “deceived consumers about how their geolocation information would be shared with advertising networks and other third parties,” a charge which they apparently did not dispute.

The complaint “alleges that the company’s privacy policy deceptively failed to disclose that the app transmitted users’ precise location and unique device identifier to third parties, including advertising networks.”

To make matters even worse, the application actually presented users “with an option to not share their information, even though it was shared automatically rendering the option meaningless.”

The deceptive practices of the developer did not end there.

Continue reading at:  http://endthelie.com/2013/12/06/android-developer-to-settle-with-ft...