Bitdefender vs. Apple on Clueful issue: "About 40% of applications do not encrypt data"
Big row in the data privacy of iPhone users. An application made by the Romanians of Bitdefender, that told iPhone users whether their other apps were breaching data privacy, has been removed from the App store.
This came shortly after the Clueful application would say if your other programmes were accessing your address book, tracking your GPS co-ordinates or farming information from social networking accounts. The app was approved by Apple on May 22, but the company has now reversed its decision, on June 29.
George Buhnici from the Pro TV News talked to Catalin Cosoi, Bitdefender specialist, about this iPhone data privacy issue.
"The Clueful app tells you what other application do. We are looking at every app in your iPhone and tell you what it's doing behind you, without your knowledge. One thing is what you see at an application and other reality is what is happening behind you. We inform you that this app, let's say Google Latitude, is accesing your contact list. Ok, it's not a big deal at the first sight, but what if I am telling you that 1 of 5 iOS applications is collecting your data contacts? Now it's time to ask yourself ... why is that??" - Catalin Cosoi of Bitdefender said to George Buhnici on www.stirileprotv.ro.
"For instance, about 40% of applications do not encrypt data. This means that if I have an application that connects to an external service and does not encrypt the transmission ... it can be viewed by anyone. Imagine that we connect to a service that requires a username and password. They are transmitted unencrypted. When that hacker will have access including that username and password (...) and we know that many people use the same password to multiple services, since a simple password Facebook, say, you can try the same password on many other services." - Catalin Cosoi of Bitdefender said to George Buhnici on www.stirileprotv.ro.
