Schwanksta

newschallenge:

1. What do you propose to do? [20 words]

To collect and publish data about Los Angeles in a simple API aimed at powering a new generation of civic-minded applications.

2. How will your project make data more useful? [50 words]

L.A. is a mess. With 10 million people clustered in 88…

(Source: newschallenge2)

Not that they didn’t before, but they’ve become a bit more aggressive.

From the PDF:

In conclusion, the Data Inspectorate finds:

•    App users are not adequately informed about which data is collected about them, what it is
collected for, or how the data may be reused.

•    It appears unclear to the Data Inspectorate who is legally responsible (the controller) for
applications that collect personal data.

•    App users’ right to access their personal data that has been collected is difficult to exercise when there is no indication of who is legally responsible for the processing (who is the controller).

•    Existing opportunities to explain how apps use personal data on App Store or Android Market are seldom used. If this were done more often, users would be in a better position to decide whether to install apps or not before downloading them.

•    Available opportunities to explain how personal data is used within apps are rarely used. It is worth including information here, too, so it is easily available to users once they have downloaded the apps. However, if information is given only inside the apps, users will only be informed after they have given their consent when downloading the apps – this is the wrong way round in accordance to the Personal Data Act.

•    The opportunities to explain how apps use personal data on app managers’ websites are rarely used. This is unfortunate, as a publication of privacy policies would make information more available and clarify for the user who is legally responsible for the apps. It would also clarify which legal system (jurisdiction) the apps fall under in terms of using personal data.

There’s even a proof-of-concept app.

FTA:

Let me put it another way. By using only the INTERNET permission, any app can also gain at least the following:

ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION Allows an application to access coarse (e.g., Cell-ID, WiFi) location
ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION Allows an application to access fine (e.g., GPS) location
ACCESS_LOCATION_EXTRA_COMMANDS Allows an application to access extra location provider commands
ACCESS_WIFI_STATE Allows applications to access information about Wi-Fi networks
BATTERY_STATS Allows an application to collect battery statistics
DUMP Allows an application to retrieve state dump information from system services.
GET_ACCOUNTS Allows access to the list of accounts in the Accounts Service
GET_PACKAGE_SIZE Allows an application to find out the space used by any package.
GET_TASKS Allows an application to get information about the currently or recently running tasks: a thumbnail representation of the tasks, what activities are running in it, etc.
READ_LOGS Allows an application to read the low-level system log files.
READ_SYNC_SETTINGS Allows applications to read the sync settings
READ_SYNC_STATS Allows applications to read the sync stats

Joy!