(Updated) After Pandora revealed in an IPO filing that it was subpoenaed by a grand jury investigating smartphone apps, the team at Veracode decided to do a little digging and found that both Pandora's Android and iPhone apps transmitted information about a user's age, gender, location, and unique identifiers for the phone to advertisers.
Pandora gathers age and gender when a user register.
As the number of apps grow, so will the information gathered. “In isolation some of this data is uninteresting," according to Veracode. “But when compiled into a single unifying picture, it can provide significant insight into a persons life. Consider for a moment that your current location is being tracked... Couple that with your gender and age and then with your geolocated IP address. When all that is placed into a single basket, it's pretty easy to determine who someone is, what they do for a living, who they associate with, and any number of other traits about them."
Pandora gathers age and gender when a user register.
As the number of apps grow, so will the information gathered. “In isolation some of this data is uninteresting," according to Veracode. “But when compiled into a single unifying picture, it can provide significant insight into a persons life. Consider for a moment that your current location is being tracked... Couple that with your gender and age and then with your geolocated IP address. When all that is placed into a single basket, it's pretty easy to determine who someone is, what they do for a living, who they associate with, and any number of other traits about them."
