A research team led by David Choffnes, an assis­tant pro­fessor in the Col­lege of Com­puter and Infor­ma­tion Sci­ence, found “exten­sive” leakage of users’ information—device and user iden­ti­fiers, loca­tions, and passwords—into net­work traffic from apps on mobile devices, including iOS, Android, and Win­dows phones. The team also found a way to stop the flow.

This work has been widely covered by a variety of news sources as listed below.

6/1/17

• NBC Boston: Privacy concerns with MBTA security app

5/31/17

• Fast Company: Fast Company: Here’s how to track the smartphone apps that are tracking you

5/18/17

• NU News: Film featuring CCIS Professor’s research earns national attention

2/16/17

• How to keep data leaks from getting out of hand

11/25/15

• New Scientist: Privacy apps to help fight back against companies that track you

11/23/15

• Yahoo Finance: Hackers may hit home for the holidays

11/17/15

• NBC News: ReCon App Watches Your Other Apps for Leaked Private Info

11/16/15

• The Christian Science Monitor: Want to stop apps from sharing your data? There’s an app for that, too
• beta Boston: Harvard, Northeastern’s privacy tools flag apps that leak personal data