App Explicitly Asks User's Permission to Access:
Items listed in black, and marked with a checkmark, indicate a permission that was sought by the app. Items listed in gray indicate that the app didn't seek permission to access the data.
Read Contact Data (access data in your address book)
Read Internet's history and bookmarks (Web browsing information)
Full internet access (Can send data out about you)
Read phone state and identity (access unique IDs on your phone)
Read system log files (access to files on how you use the phone and apps)
Coarse (network-based) location (based on Wi-Fi and cell phone towers)
Fine (GPS) location (based on global positioning system)
App Sends to Third Parties:
BSSID (Number associated with a wireless network)
BSSID2 (Number associated with a wireless network)
Marketers are tracking smartphone users through “apps” — games and other software on their phones. Some apps collect information including location, unique serial-number-like identifiers for the phone, and personal details such as age and sex. Apps routinely send the information to marketing companies that use it to compile dossiers on phone users. As part of the What They Know investigative series into data privacy, the Journal analyzed the data collected and shared by 101 popular apps on iPhone and Android phones (including the Journal’s own iPhone app). This interactive database shows the behavior of these apps, and describes what each app told users about the information it gathered.