Privacy of iPhone users is in danger
By Gina on October 6, 2010 | Phishing, Apple, iPhone, UDID, iTunes
Eric Smith, Assistant Director of Information Security and Networking at Bucknell University, Pennsylvania, announced he discovered that Apple iPhone applications forward users' UDIDs (unique device identifiers).
UDID is a sequence of letters and numbers that have their limit after 40 digits. This can be used in trying to delicate information or in attempt to name the user and steal its identity.
Eric Smith found that 68 percent of 57 programs in Apple iTunes application store sent out UDID data. The sensitive applications, such as Amazon, Chase Bank, Target, Sams Club, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, eBay, PayPal, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Fidelity and America Express, were tested.
E. Smith pointed out, that applications like Amazon, Facebook and Twitter have the ability to tie a UDID to a true name of the user. „Most iPhone application vendors are collecting and remotely storing UDID data, and some of these vendors also have the ability to correlate UDID to a real-world identity,“ – he said.
E. Smith also added: „Since Apple has not provided a tool for end-users to delete application cookies or to block the visibility of the UDID to applications, iPhone owners are helpless to prevent their phones from leaking this information.“
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