Dialing for Dollars

You give it more undivided attention than your friends and family. You wrap it in protective cases and touch its exposed parts often, excitedly; but always gently. For most of your waking hours, it’s cradled in your hands and the object of your longing gaze. But even you have to sleep once in awhile. And when you do, it betrays you. Like Judas, Brutus, and Fredo, your iPhone can’t be trusted. Geoffrey A. Fowler explains in WaPo: It’s the middle of the night. Do you know who your iPhone is talking to? “On a recent Monday night, a dozen marketing companies, research firms and other personal data guzzlers got reports from my iPhone. At 11:43 p.m., a company called Amplitude learned my phone number, email and exact location. At 3:58 a.m., another called Appboy got a digital fingerprint of my phone. At 6:25 a.m., a tracker called Demdex received a way to identify my phone and sent back a list of other trackers to pair up with. And all night long, there was some startling behavior by a household name: Yelp. It was receiving a message that included my IP address — once every five minutes.”