Hackers warn against iPhone’s security vulnerability

Eric Smith of Bucknell University had a theory that application developers for iPhone may be able to link a user to a device and even pinpoint the device’s geo-location whenever data is transmitted. To test his theory, Smith studied 50-odd top applications to see what kind of information they transmit and astonishingly, some of them transmitted personal information and device’s unique ID in plain-text format.

 

While this information is used by developers to validate applications purchase by a user, the choice of transmitting this information in an unencrypted format is highly questionable. Information transmitted in plain-text format makes it very easy to be intercepted and used by dubious parties like counterfeiters, hackers, etc. This seems to be of grave concern to a user’s privacy and even though Apple cannot be directly blamed for this, they may be compelled by public or judiciary pressure to tighten the current system used by iPhone apps.