The report from GlobalWebIndex estimates that 28% of Internet users, which equates to approximately 415 million people, are now using tools that “cover their online tracks” when using the internet. The survey also found that 56% of internet users are under the impression that their personal privacy is being eroded by Internet use.

The study involved approximately 170,000 users and found that, among 11% of them, the anonymity software Tor was being used to protect them from spying, in particular the NSA. It was also found that the highest increase in use of these tools was in Indonesia, Vietnam and India.

Interestingly, the huge increase in privacy tools used in China shows that the number of people using Facebook and Twitter is much higher than previously thought. It was estimated that among the Chinese, 34% were somehow hiding their online identity. The reason, as far as the study shows, is to use YouTube (60%) and to gain access to social networks as previously mentioned (55%).

Behaviorally, the Global Web Index showed that Facebook was still the number one social site in the world at 1.1 billion active users, going against the recent reports that they were losing their popularity among younger Internet users.

The post Privacy Tools Now Used By 25% Percent of the Global Online Population appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Close to half of all smartphone owners admit to feeling concerned about their privacy when accessing the mobile web.

The study found that phone users are most concerned about companies accessing personal text messages and financial information, but less worried about data privacy for advertising purposes.

Alex Scott, the public policy manager of the IAB, is quoted by the U.K.’s CampaignLive publication that “when it comes to mobile devices, privacy means a lot of different things in different contexts to people.”

“From this research,” Scott explains, “we also know that consumers are taking measures to address these specific privacy concerns themselves. However, the study also shows consumers crave clarity on data collection and what it’s used for. We have a collective responsibility to give consumers more control; as such we’re working to address transparency and control for mobile advertising privacy, to give consumers a consistent experience across devices.”

The post Half of All Mobile Users Worried About Privacy appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

A new infographic probes these burning questions about our affinity for Facebook and the potential privacy concerns that emerge as a direct result.

“This infographic does a fantastic job to show how important mobile is to overall Facebook usage,” says Jim Dougherty of Leaders West Digital Marketing Journal. “I suspect that trends like this for Facebook are indicative of future trends for other online consumption.”

So what must you know about the potent reach and privacy concerns related to Facebook? Check out the infographic below.

The post Infographic: Understanding Mobile Privacy and Facebook appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The scary discovery comes as Lookout announces its new standard for classifying adware.

Adware is an ad network that exhibits intrusive behavior without gaining appropriate consent from a user, which can pose a privacy risk.

Lookout now flags ad networks newly classified as adware in Lookout Mobile Security for Android, providing users with new insight and information on how to remove any applications containing adware.

“Mobile privacy is an increasingly important topic for consumers and app developers, and adware is a risk to user privacy and one of the most prevalent threats on mobile worldwide,” Lookout says, indicating it found that the global likelihood of a new Android Lookout user having adware on their device is 1.6%, and approximately 6.5% of free apps on Google Play today contain adware.

“Ad networks are a vital element in the mobile ecosystem, allowing app developers a way to offer free applications to consumers,” a statement from Lookout revealed Wednesday. “Ad networks that overstep user privacy bounds or negatively affect user experience create conflict, compromising not only consumers’ privacy and user experience, but also the developer community that relies on mobile ad networks to bring free products to market.”

The post Android’s Adware Epidemic In Focus appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to various published reports, PRISM has given the government unprecedented access to individual’s personal information for the last six years.

From Google to Facebook, some of the world’s largest tech companies immediately stepped forward to disavow and distance themselves from the so-called PRISM program.

On Monday, Apple finally offered an elaborate response to the scandal by issuing formal comment regarding PRISM and its company’s commitment to consumer privacy. The statement in its entirety is shared below:

Two weeks ago, when technology companies were accused of indiscriminately sharing customer data with government agencies, Apple issued a clear response: We first heard of the government’s “Prism” program when news organizations asked us about it on June 6. We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers, and any government agency requesting customer content must get a court order.

Like several other companies, we have asked the U.S. government for permission to report how many requests we receive related to national security and how we handle them. We have been authorized to share some of that data, and we are providing it here in the interest of transparency.

From December 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013, Apple received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement for customer data. Between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices were specified in those requests, which came from federal, state and local authorities and included both criminal investigations and national security matters. The most common form of request comes from police investigating robberies and other crimes, searching for missing children, trying to locate a patient with Alzheimer’s disease, or hoping to prevent a suicide.

Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it.

Apple has always placed a priority on protecting our customers’ personal data, and we don’t collect or maintain a mountain of personal details about our customers in the first place. There are certain categories of information which we do not provide to law enforcement or any other group because we choose not to retain it.

For example, conversations which take place over iMessage and FaceTime are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them. Apple cannot decrypt that data. Similarly, we do not store data related to customers’ location, Map searches or Siri requests in any identifiable form.

We will continue to work hard to strike the right balance between fulfilling our legal responsibilities and protecting our customers’ privacy as they expect and deserve.

The post Apple Looks Through The PRISM of Mobile Privacy appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

From searches to commands, everything that users put into Siri remains with Apple for quite a while.

Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller tells Wired that anonymized user data is retained for approximately 24 months.

“Apple may keep anonymized Siri data for up to two years,” Muller reveals. “If a user turns Siri off, both identifiers are deleted immediately along with any associated data.”

From Wired:

Whenever you speak into Apple’s voice activated personal digital assistant, it ships it off to Apple’s data farm for analysis. Apple generates a random numbers to represent the user and it associates the voice files with that number. This number — not your Apple user ID or email address — represents you as far as Siri’s back-end voice analysis system is concerned. Once the voice recording is six months old, Apple “disassociates” your user number from the clip, deleting the number from the voice file. But it keeps these disassociated files for up to 18 more months for testing and product improvement purposes.

Are you comfortable with Apple retaining your Siri data for upwards of two years?

The post Apple Admits to Storing Siri Data for Two Years appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Monday’s report underscores the recent wave of concern regarding the vulnerability of Google’s mobile operating system to such attacks.

In 2012, the Android OS continued to be the number one target for mobile malware. Overall, the number of malware attacks more than doubled from 2011 to 2012.

According to NQ mobile, one of the biggest and most profitable trends for cybercriminals in 2012 was combining mobile malware with social engineering techniques (Phishing and Smishing) to gain access to users’ financial information.

Among the key findings of the new report are:

• 163% increase in mobile malware: NQ Mobile discovered over 65,227 new pieces of mobile malware in 2012 vs. only 24,794 in 2011
• 94.8% of malware discovered in 2012 was designed to attack Android devices vs. only 4% targeting Symbian
• 28% of mobile malware discovered in 2012 was designed to collect and profit from a user’s personal data

To review the entire report from NQ Mobile, click here.

The post Android Malware Infection Doubled in 2012, Says NQ Mobile appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Human Demand, the mobile ad technology company, says TRUSTe will help them deliver data privacy management across Human Demand’s ad buying platform.

According to details published in Monday’s announcement, Human Demand “will standardize on TRUSTed Mobile Ads, the industry’s first and only unified privacy management platform for mobile advertising.”

By integrating TRUSTed Mobile Ads directly into its platform, Human Demand will provide its agency clients with a mobile advertising solution that builds trust and engagement.

The underlying solution, we’re told, also provides consumers with notice, choice, and supports compliance with emerging best practices regarding the collection and usage of customer data.

“By incorporating TRUSTe’s proven data management solution into our Mobile DSP (Demand Side Platform), we are giving our customers the best tools on the market to build trust with their target audience,” says Howie Schwartz, CEO and Founder of Human Demand.

To learn more, check out Human Demand here.

The post Human Demand and TRUSTe Partner for Data Privacy Management appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

To that end, SafeApp Mobility, Inc. has just announced the availability of the SafeApp Certificate. It is advertised as a “simple, affordable certification process” that developers can use to bridge the gap in consumer confidence. This is made possible through the demonstration that their app is safe to download and use.

With a SafeApp Certificate, the company says, Android developers can improve app retention and conversion.

“Google’s open source app publishing model is great from a development standpoint, but the downside is that user privacy intrusions are a persistent problem, as multiple incidents have illustrated,” said Joe Santilli, CEO of SafeApp Mobility. “When developers take user safety and privacy seriously and demonstrate that commitment with a SafeApp Certificate, users take notice.

“Our stats show that 24% of users look at the privacy information we present – they care about this issue,” he adds. “We also see a 31% increase in 24-hour retention and a 100% increase in seven-day retention for apps with a SafeApp Certificate. This translates directly into developers’ profits.”

To learn more about the SafeApp Certificate, click here.

The post SafeApp Certificate Gives Android Devs a Solution to Secure User Confidence appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Based on the findings of an expansive survey, McAfee reveals that more than one in ten mobile device owners use the same PIN across multiple devices and accounts.

That’s a big security risk, the company says.

Perhaps even worse is the fact that 55% of all survey respondents admit to sharing their PINs or passwords with others.

To showcase the findings of the new survey and to help mobile users examiner their own mobile security practices (and perhaps learn some helpful tips in the process), McAfee published a new infographic along with the report (which can be obtained via PDF here).

Check it out and weigh your practices against those of others who are putting their mobile security in jeopardy.

The post Infographic: Do You Fail The Mobile Security Test? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.