Many Android collect information about Wi-Fi access points, which researchers say can be used to determine someone's location 90% of the time.
The privacy implications of Wi-Fi hotspots are often overlooked, but according to a study by the Universities of Copenhagen and Denmark in conjunction with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they present risks if the information is misused.
Wireless network information is not considered location data, and some Android apps such as Candy Crush Saga, Pandora , and Angry Birds systematically collect it.
"This makes it possible for third parties to collect high-resolution mobility data via radar, which circumvents the privacy policy and model that the Android environment protects," writes Sune Lehmann, associate professor at DTU Informatics at the Technical University of Denmark, in a blog post.
He also adds that the study does not imply that applications like those mentioned above collect information from wireless networks for location purposes, but that theoretically this could happen.
Location data is considered valuable for advertising purposes, as it allows for the presentation of ads relevant to the user's location. However, this type of tracking concerns users.
Android apps usually have a series of permissions that someone must accept when installing them on their device, but the Wi-Fi scanning is different from the one requesting location data, granting the permission is generally not considered dangerous according to the study.
It is also noted that Apple introduced a new method in iOS 8 to make it harder for wireless access points to collect device data . However, Lehmann wrote that Apple's method does not effectively address the problem.
