Contacts & Privacy on the Droid

[3devious]

I know that this may seem like a "Tin Foil Hat Alert!!!1111!" but I was just wondering what people thought of the following post I made to the Verizon section in a discussion about someone transfering their contacts into their new Droid. With the Google Account/Facebook integration, I was just exploring what the costs/vs convenience may be.

Here's what I said:

Do any of you worry about the security of your contact data? Let's say that your contacts are through Google and Facebook. Perhaps you've sync'd them and added more contacts that weren't part of your online accounts. Are there any concerns that someone capable of datamining that information could compromise the privacy of your contacts?

I know that Google and Facebook have all of these user agreements supposedly protecting your privacy and Verizon has an alleged ultra-secure network, but nothing is foolproof. All of the carriers have already had significant secruity breaches. Perhaps you don't care about your contacts' privacy, but how comfortable would you feel about someone building a system of records containing your information if it became accessible to someone other than the person you gave that information to?

 

[andadroid]

I'm very worried about this and asked something similar here recently. My concern has more to do with the apps than a google compromise. Some apps have access to both contact information and communication. It is essential that my contacts not end up on some spam list via my droid. Just not sure how to ensure that can't happen.

 

[3devious]

I'm very worried about this and asked something similar here recently. My concern has more to do with the apps than a google compromise. Some apps have access to both contact information and communication. It is essential that my contacts not end up on some spam list via my droid. Just not sure how to ensure that can't happen.

That is kind of what I was getting at when I was talking about a Google/Facebook sync. People make tons of bogus facebook apps, even facebook mobile apps. I know that you have to opt in to almost any app you want to use with Facebook, but I still have questions about how that sort of thing works.

 

[Hemorrdrhoid]

I'm somewhat distrustful of anything that accesses my contacts, calendar, or mail, and certainly any 3rd party apps that want my gmail login (since it's the "one ring that rules them all"). The best you can do is look for solid appmakers that have a good reputation.

 

[andadroid]

Yeah, but it's scary to think that these kinds of things could be possible. It would be nice to hear from developers on this--what they could theoretically do in terms of datamining, and what users should do to avoid it.

So many apps (like "where's my droid") have access to both contacts and communication. I really want that app, but so far avoid everything with this combo.