Top Android app devs found exfiltrating mystery stealth packets

  • 23 November 2015
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Half of covert packets are about analytics, half are a mystery

 
                                              


 
23 Nov 2015 at 08:26, Team Register
 
They make the findings in the paper Covert Communication in Mobile Applications (PDF)
"Analytics services collect information about application performance, crash and usage data, as well as the exact actions the user performs within the app. While this information has a clear value to the developer, no apparent description specifying the nature and frequency of the data collection is presented to the user.In fact, some applications start collecting analytics information even before they get activated. For example, twitter, Walmart and Pandora start their data collection as soon as the phone is booted and continue, periodically, during the phone’s entire up time, even if the applications themselves were never used. In most cases, the user cannot opt-out from such data sharing without uninstalling the application. "
 
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