21st Century Learning and Teaching

Given the publicity attracted by recent high-profile data breaches and the consequences for those whose personal information was subsequently leaked, it may, perhaps, concern parents to learn that around half of the sites examined by GPEN were happily and willingly sharing their children's data with third parties.

Also, considering the occasionally dark nature of the world we live in, anyone with responsibility for a child's welfare may well not like the revelation that just under 1 in 4 sites and apps gave kids the opportunity to upload their photo or add video clips. 22% of the services looked at also allowed youngsters to hand over their phone numbers.

Sadly, despite the potential problems posed by allowing children to share too much data, only 24% of the tested apps and websites encouraged any sort of parental oversight.

What's more, should a concerned adult discover that their offspring is revealing too much personal information, the options for remedying the situation are few and far between - with 71% of the investigated services making it difficult or impossible to delete accounts.

Adam Stevens, head of the ICO's intelligence hub said:

These are concerning results. The attitude shown by a number of these websites and apps suggested little regard for how anyone's personal information should be handled, let alone that of children.

Learn more:

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/often-asked-questions-are-there-cyber-security-dangers-with-apps-and-whats-about-privacy/

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2014/09/15/specialized-magazines-for-apps/

So, how did this happen?
Snapchat, the self-destructing photo-sharing app that turned down a $3 billion acquisition offer by Facebook, uses what’s called an Application Programming Interface (API).

Typically, an API is shared widely in order to attract a large pool of developers wanting to use a company’s capabilities. Not so with Snapchat. Snapchat instead keeps its API to itself, using it only to help its applications talk to its servers.

But just because Snapchat doesn’t publish its API doesn’t mean it isn’t up for grabs. In fact, Snapchat’s API has been reversed engineered to the point that it’s not only widely shared, but openly critiqued by security professionals and actively used by third party app developers on both Google Play and the Apple iTunes Store. One of these third party apps (many of which aren’t well secured) is called Snapsaved, which, like its name describes, saves Snapchat’s supposedly fleeting images for users to later retrieve—and that’s where we see a problem.

Learn more:

- http://gustmees.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/often-asked-questions-are-there-cyber-security-dangers-with-apps-and-whats-about-privacy/

Those of you interested in preserving your privacy will want to watch out for the mSpy app. When installed on an Android or iOS device, it can track phone calls, location data and ...

Summer 2013 App Reputation Report to examine the hidden behaviors behind free and paid mobile apps

The cloud-based, fully automated Appthority App Risk Management Service performed static, dynamic and behavioral app analysis on the 400 most popular free and paid apps on the iOS and Android platforms.

Appthority analyzed each app for particular behaviors within a test environment

.

Highlights from the App Reputation Report are:

- Overall, 83% of the most popular apps are associated with security risks and privacy issues.

- iOS apps exhibited more risky behaviors than Android apps. 91% of iOS apps exhibit at least one risky behavior, as compared to 80% of Android apps.

- 95% of the top free apps and 77.5% of the top paid apps exhibited at least one risky behavior.

- 78% of the most popular free Android apps identify the user's ID (UDID).

- Even though Apple prohibits its developers from accessing the UDID, 5.5% of the tested iOS apps still do.

- 72% of the top free apps track for the user's location, compared to 41% of paid apps.

- Although paid apps already generate revenue when downloaded, 59% of paid iOS and 24% of paid Android apps still support in-app purchasing.

- Furthermore, 39% of paid iOS and 16% of paid Android apps still share data with ad networks.

I've done some thinking about computer security and privacy over the past while.  It's been precipitated by conversations with Gust Mees.  It's good thinking. We're all in the same boat.  Just thin...

A discovery about Facebook's official Android app once again puts into question if the social network's developers truly *get* security and privacy.

As Symantec describe on its blog, when its developers tested its new Norton Mobile Security product against some of the world’s most popular Android apps, they were disturbed to see a warning message claiming that the Facebook Android app leaks personal information without the device owner’s knowledge: