iPhone, Android App ISVs Targeted in Privacy Probe

(Reuters) – The U.S. is investigating how
customer data is used by some popular applications that run on
the mobile platforms of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google Inc
(NASDAQ:GOOG).

Online radio service Pandora said in a regulatory filing on
Monday it was subpoenaed by a Federal grand jury requesting
information. It believes it is not the target of the
investigation and that similar subpoenas were issued on an
industry-wide basis to the publishers of numerous other
smartphone applications.

The company did not disclose when it received the subpoena.
The information was contained in an amended filing by Pandora
ahead of a public offering of around $100 million expected
later this year.

The Web radio company has more than 80 million registered
users some of whom use mobile apps to access the music service
beyond their personal computers.

Pandora, Apple and Google were not immediately available
for comment.

There are concerns from privacy watchers that popular
applications such as Pandora’s can disclose critical
information about a user such as location, gender and age.

More than 300,000 apps are available on Apple’s App Store
catalog, while Google’s Android carries over 100,000 and is
growing fast. Billions of apps have been downloaded by users
for everything from social networking on sites such as Facebook
and Foursquare to accessing personal bank accounts.
(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; editing by Richard Chang and
Andre Grenon)