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Pandora Caught Transmitting Personal Info & User Location To Advertisers

image from www.wdaz.com (Updated) After Pandora revealed in an IPO filing that it was subpoenaed by a grand jury investigating smartphone apps, the team at Veracode decided to do a little digging and found that both Pandora’s Android and iPhone apps transmitted information about a user’s age, gender, location, and unique identifiers for the phone to  advertisers. 

Pandora gathers age and gender when a user register.

As the number of apps grow, so will the information gathered. "In isolation some of this data is uninteresting," according to Veracode. "But when compiled into a single unifying picture, it can provide significant insight into a persons life. Consider for a moment that your current location is being tracked… Couple that with your gender and age and then with your geolocated IP address. When all that is placed into a single basket, it’s pretty easy to determine who someone is, what they do for a living, who they associate with, and any number of other traits about them".

 

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7 Comments

  1. its free music though so unless you’re an undercover serial cover this shit shouldn’t be a deall breaker.

  2. They could sell your information for advertisment (spam e-mails, people calling to market goods, etc.)..

  3. I stopped using them a long time ago and instead I turn to Shoutcast..Plus Pandora doesnt have many Independent Musicians on the service..but there are a ton of shoutcast stations that have alot of hidden gems in Indie music

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