The app trap: Where does your data go?

Wow! Wow! It's shocking. We asked volunteers to open up their phones and watch, in real time, how much of their information some popular apps might be taking and giving away. Computer scientist Joel Reardon and his research assistant are tracking the information leaving our test phone. Details about our habits, interests, where we go and when. Here are some of our findings. I think people are going to be shocked when they see the sharing for PC Optimum. We searched for prenatal vitamins, something potentially personal. I counted 10 different companies that received what you searched for. Next, Tim Hortons. So at the moment it launched, we saw that it was communicating with third parties. Reardon also says an overseas company collects details about your phone through the app. More than he thinks the app needs to work. I've only ever seen this one overseas company collect the ringtones that you have on your device. And the alarm sounds that you have on your device. The app's policies say they will share or collect your data. Using the app means accepting their terms. The apps we tested aside, this privacy expert worries about all the data being collected about Canadians. It's being used in all these other contexts which have nothing to do to the intended purpose of the collection. Trust me, it can come back to haunt you. Loblaw, the company behind the PC Optimum app, says it has never sold personal information, though it does share some data with technology providers to improve services. Tim Horton says it uses that overseas company to prevent fraud, not for advertising. It says it does not sell personal information and that third party does not sell data.