Cellphone Games May Pose Privacy Risk

Consumers may love to fill their smartphones with a number of games they can use to kill time, but by downloading these programs, they may also be putting their privacy at risk.

A recent study found that of the many most popular applications for the Apple iPhone and Google Android smartphones sent users' unique device IDs to other companies without consumers' consent, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. And while these ID numbers don't reveal any user information themselves, companies can keep track of the habits of a consumer using a particular device to track their tendencies.

Further, some caution that this data can eventually lead to companies eventually gaining access to consumers' name, location, email address and social networking information, the report said.

"Mobile security is not limited to a singular app or games overall - it's an issue that the entire mobile ecosystem needs to address," Nils Puhlmann, chief security officer for the app developer Zynga, told the newspaper.

Identity Theft 911 vice president of product management Betty Chan-Bauza writes regularly about product issues related to privacy on her official blog.