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Anti Spying app

N

Nordichund

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 21, 2007
495
266
Oslo, Norway
Currently there is a lot of debate here in Norway about iPhone apps which are passing on personal information about iPhone owners and their movements, contact info etc to private companies.
Here is something I found in English about the problem from the Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704694004576020083703574602.html

If there are any App developers out there who could create an App that scans the Apps on an Iphone and could inform the user just what information the app is sending back to the company, that is one app I would pay good money for. One that is connected to a database of trusted and cowboy apps.

Unfortunately since there is little protection from Apple against these rogue app developers who are abusing their position I have now deleted many apps from my phone and just use the few I need. This I feel is a real shame, but Big Brother is big enough already and I really don't want to share my details and all my phone contacts, information etc. with a bunch of sharks who would probably sell their own mother for a cheap app.

Ideally Apple with all its rules and regulations SHOULD be protecting iPhone/IPad users against this breach of trust. After all it's in their interests. Disappointing is all I can say Apple.
 
torbjoern

torbjoern

macrumors 65816
Jun 9, 2009
1,204
6
The Black Lodge
It should be possible to regulate what kind of information each application on the iPhone may gather. I know this is possible when you install an app on Android.
 
maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,561
43,539
torbjoern said:
It should be possible to regulate what kind of information each application on the iPhone may gather. I know this is possible when you install an app on Android.
Click to expand...

The difference is that since android is wide open, the app tells you what services it uses. That's assuming the app is well behaved and isn't malware. There have been a number of malware apps on android that presumably don't communicate what they do, i.e., steal your passwords, or transmit your contact list.

Since apple is the keeper of the app store of iOS, they would have to approve of an app that monitors outgoing network traffic. Additionally before that even occurs, the APIs have to be available for a developer to actually be able to write a program to do this. I'm not sure apple has opened up the APIs for that.

In the end, while it may be possible, I think its highly unlikely.
 
maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,561
43,539
but many of us don't want to jailbreak our iPads, heck just look at the front page of MR with the story of apple disabling the iBookstore when it detects some jailbreaks
 
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