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Android App Usage and Cell Tower Location: Private. Sensitive. Available to Anyone?

Do you consider the list of mobile apps you use and the frequency at which you use them private information? What about the GPS coordinates of the cell towers to which your smartphone connects? The Android framework restricts third-party apps from freely obtaining this information – unless the user explicitly grants the app access. Android is a diverse ecosystem that comes with many benefits, but device vendors can still unintentionally expose app usage and device location in a variety of ways. We uncover privacy leaks of both types of data, where pre-loaded vendor software exposes app usage and location to co-located software. We also explore various local exposures of this data, where it is leaked to resources that do not require any special permissions or privileges to access. We discovered these leakages across several major vendors, including Samsung, Nokia, Transsion brands (i.e., Tecno, Infinix, and Itel).

English
  • Originally Aired August 9, 2024
  • Runtime 45 minutes
  • Created August 25, 2024 by
    Subscriber-2473783
  • Modified August 25, 2024 by
    Subscriber-2473783