QuoteA growing industry is assembling this data into profiles of cellphone users. Mobclix, the ad exchange, matches more than 25 ad networks with some 15,000 apps seeking advertisers. The Palo Alto, Calif., company collects phone IDs, encodes them (to obscure the number), and assigns them to interest categories based on what apps people download and how much time they spend using an app, among other factors.
By tracking a phone's location, Mobclix also makes a "best guess" of where a person lives, says Mr. Gurbuxani, the Mobclix executive. Mobclix then matches that location with spending and demographic data from Nielsen Co
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704694004576020083703574602.html
Another reason why I prefer a touch screen optimized web page over an app unless the app is clearly superior to use.
It's all spooky tho.
That article got my tin-foil hat all bent out of shape.
Even if you JailBreak or Root your device there's no guarantee these handy apps you download aren't doing the same as those in the official app stores. One can only hope that some pressure will cause them to tighten up security. I don't want to go through the hassle of setting up an encrypted tunnel to my home network just so that I can surf the web on my phone. I'd also hate to have to give up a lot of these apps that I genuinely find useful due to privacy concerns.