Do Son 
In the era of smartphones, you probably do not know exactly what your installed app will do. A start-up, called Alphonso, offers games APP, a way to quietly gather the user’s television viewing habits. Its software uses microphones on mobile phones to record which TVs the user has seen by identifying TV commercials and audio signals in programs. The information can then be used to target ads more precisely and to try to analyze things like which ads prompted a person to go to a car dealership.
The New York Times reveals that there are more than 250 titles in Google Play and the iOS App Store, and Alphonso’s privacy policy explains that the data collected can be shared with a number of third parties.
Alphonso’s software does not record human speech, and the company said it has a clear description in the application description and privacy policy, saying it can not access the microphone and location without the user’s consent.
Choice for Device Microphone Data: If you use a mobile application that includes the Service, you can also provide consent for us to access your microphone to collect and use data about the video content you watch on your television or other video viewing device to customize advertising in mobile apps, as well as provide you with television content recommendations. To withdraw that consent, you can use the platform settings of your device as shown in our mobile opt out guide, available here. You could also withdraw consent at any time from the settings menu of your mobile app.
Alphonso declined to disclose how many users it collected.
Reference: NYTimes
Support Our Threat Intelligence
Find our threat intelligence and malware analysis helpful? Support our work today and unlock a 100% ad-free reading experience!
Buy Me a Coffee
