Study: iOS apps leaked more user data than Android apps, but of the more benign kind

posted by Daniel P. / Oct 24, 2016, 4:55 AM

Study: iOS apps leaked more user data than Android apps, but of the more benign kind

Android usually gets a lot of flak for being prone to hacking and leaking personal info, ubiquitous as it is. Research from digital security firm Zscaler, however, pegs iOS apps to be a bit leakier in terms of user info, though most of the information that emanates from mobile apps there in general was found to be pretty benign.

On average, Android apps that passed through the company's cloud transaction, leaked user data in 0.3% of the cases, while that figure was 0.5% for iOS apps, yet the number there is derived from a larger sample. Both are not big numbers, though, plus it is mostly device info and location data that are shared.

Only a fraction of the leaked data was found to be personally identifiable info (PII). This is where Android and iOS differ again - just 0.2% of the iOS leaks included PII data, while on Android that share was 3%. The geographic distribution of the leaky apps is also pretty interesting - 70% of iOS privacy-related traffic comes from China, while for Android it's from US and UK. Not very surprising, given the come-and-go state of Google Services on Android phones in China.

iOS apps leak more user data than Android apps, but of the more benign kind

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source: Zscaler

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14 Comments

1. xondk

Posts: 1904; Member since: Mar 25, 2014

Clarification would be needed, in terms of what this is 'leaked' and what 'location' is? ip? gps location? which? what devices? And at least by the written definition, metadata which has unique id's and network data can be used for gathering personal identification information, soo, none of this on both sides is good. :(

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 5:02 AM 2

3. trojan_horse

Posts: 5868; Member since: May 06, 2016

Right on! This stat as it's presented, isn't clear enough to comprehend what exactly was leaked, and how. This is vaugue, literally.

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 5:08 AM 2

2. LetsBeHonest

Posts: 1548; Member since: Jun 04, 2013

This is where Android and iOS differ again - just 0.2% of the iOS leaks included PII data, while on Android that share was 3%. Damn Google must do something about this....

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 5:03 AM 1

4. AllFanboysMatter

Posts: 206; Member since: Feb 14, 2016

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posted on Oct 24, 2016, 6:06 AM 15

5. deewinc

Posts: 455; Member since: Feb 21, 2013

i have complained about it too. The advertisements on this website are way too many. I recently used a VPN service and pinged by computer to a US server and boy ooh boy, guys in the US accessing this website are surely having a terrible time reading articles and reviews. You are there trying to scroll through an article and the whole background is some video playing. You try to open the carousel images on articles and each image comes with an advert. Other articles suddenly pop out videos from the center not forgetting that there are other google banners everywhere. Its high time they toned down a bit. If you use adblocker, they have a way of making adblocker block the comment boxes. So if you want to comment on articles you must turn off adblocker first. PHONEARENA TAKE NOTE OF THE TONS AND TONS OF ADVERTISEMENTS EVERYWHERE!!!!!

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 6:45 AM 3

6. libra89

Posts: 2265; Member since: Apr 15, 2016

Yes, I'm so tired of it. There has been a stupid ad with a rocket/missle coming up from the bottom of the screen to the top for a while now. Every day, multiple times a day. It's exhausting. One day I made the mistake of coming here on my mobile browser...and I regretted that enough to not even read what I came there for.

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 7:37 AM 0

7. deewinc

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posted on Oct 24, 2016, 7:53 AM 0

11. Arch_Fiend

Posts: 3948; Member since: Oct 03, 2015

Tell me what browser you use and I'll tell you an ad blocker that works and still allows you to comment, Unless you use MS's Edge that is.

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 12:02 PM 0

13. Marienx

Posts: 115; Member since: Aug 27, 2013

10000000000000000000 agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 8:41 PM 0

8. Tones

Posts: 77; Member since: Aug 23, 2012

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posted on Oct 24, 2016, 8:06 AM 0

9. krystian

Posts: 423; Member since: Mar 16, 2016

The phone book leaked thousands of addresses/phone numbers/names!#$@#$

posted on Oct 24, 2016, 8:16 AM 0

10. AlikMalix unregistered

Sonoma tot info leaked for android apps is in the US and Europe and most of leaks for iOS apps in China. I guess iOS users should not worry in the US but as android user in the US I would stop using apps. I think that's the polarity of the matter. Appple needs to crack down on Chinese App Store.