Submitted by Frank Macey on
Are you concerned that your iPhone or iPad apps are collecting personal data without your permission? Now thanks to a new app called Clueful you can safeguard your privacy and see exactly what your iOS apps are doing. Some apps track location, use your address book, send your credentials out unencrypted, and/or track usage.
Some functions in these apps can even keep your GPS or audio services running unnecessarily, which can drain your battery. Many apps ask for personal data they don't need, or in some cases link your behavior to a real identity such as a Facebook page.
Clueful is here to let you know what's going on. For $3.99, the current version of the app will only analyze free iOS applications. Still, Clueful provides a plethora of useful information, including how various apps access and use your private data. The app explains privacy information for apps installed on your device and apps on the App Store you're thinking of getting.
BitDefender has developed the app amid several recent stories about the iPhone UDID being transmitted by apps to other locations. Apple has since banned the practice for apps on iTunes. Other privacy and app optimization concerns are still important to iPhone users and now with Clueful device owners have a new tool to help learn more.
Comments
JDTagish replied on Permalink
I checked this out, but all but one review on iTunes is 1 star, and say that the app cannot actually determine with any accuracy at all the apps you actually have installed. I'm going to wait and see if the app itself gets better before I'd try it. At $3.99 it's too much to spend for an app that totally doesn't work.
I'm also curious as to why it will only check out information about free apps, and not paid ones, except to think that the developer doesn't want to buy any apps to test his on, which seems kind of funny, since he wants other people to pay him for his.