Seriously Bad Designed and Anti-Privacy Behavior In Apps

Here's an interesting link to a post by Troy Hunt with a detailed look on how wasteful some apps are with the amount of data they transfer, how they don't care about the privacy of the user and they transmit data unencrypted, a special treat for anyone using Firesheep in open Wi-Fi networks. Leaves me speechless. For the details head over and be frightened.

Comments

[Stefan]

This does not surprise me. Putting dirt under the rug is cheaper than cleaning, i.e. traning SW developers security is expensive. I guess it needs some Firesheep variants for high-profile apps making the headlines to change this a little.

[Christopher]

Unfortunately, we don't have to look far from home to find mobile apps with similar lapses in privacy and data transfer..

On the topic of privacy, the app that surprises me the most is WhatsApp -- pretty much everything is sent in clear text, including the contents of your phonebook and all messages sent or received. I've observed this on the Android version, and apparently it's also the case for iPhone. With so many millions of users, it's bizarre to think that there's no outcry about this.