A big part of mobile applications is marketing. Marketers build trackers into their free apps to find out how you use your device and to try to sell you things that fit in with that. It can be scary, as an owner of the phone, to know that your information is being shared with third parties, with or without your consent. This is why the Wall Street Journal created What They Know.

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What They Know analyzed the types of data collected from 101 popular mobile applications for iPhone and Android smartphones. They checked on whether the application shares data, and whether or not it shares with just the developer, or with third parties.

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They tell you whether or not an app shares your age/gender, username/password, contacts, phone ID and phone number. It's useful to know what information is being shared, even if you can't really do anything about it. You could always not download these apps, but most free apps will have some similar type of data collection.

Features:

  • Checks on data capture of 101 different apps.
  • Apps for iPhone and Android.
  • Checks age/gender, username/password, contacts, phone ID and phone number for each app.
  • Let's you know if it's shared with the developer of third parties.

Find Whats They Know @ blogs.wsj.com/wtk-mobile