BBC News - Android handsets 'leak' personal data tells us that "More than 99% of Android phones are potentially leaking data that, if stolen, could be used to get the information they store online. The data being leaked is typically used to get at web-based services such as Google Calendar. The discovery was made by German security researchers looking at how Android phones handle identification information".

It goes on to say "Almost all versions of the Android operating system were passing round unencrypted authentication tokens, found the researchers. It was fixed in version 2.3.4 but, suggest Google figures, only 0.3% of Android phones are running this software".

My HTC Desire is running version 2.2 but a check shows that there is no update available for this phone. Does anyone here know whether this security loophole is likely to be stopped up in the near future ?

 

I don't know what "can't post kinks" means but I've been to those posts and cannot find anything that looks like an answer to my question.

 

Thanks for this info. I bought my phone without a carrier contract (presumably that is what is meant by non-branded) so as not to be at the mercy of a carrier. Also, fortunately, on the assumption that a leak like this would occur sooner or later I have only a small low-vulnerability subset of my contacts on the phone and don't use Google Calendar.