Report: Google sends personal information to app developers without user knowledge or consent

In a disturbing new report, it is revealed that every person who downloads an application through Google Play has had their personal information including name, email and address passed on to the developer without their knowledge or consent.

While this might be troubling, perhaps even more troubling is the highly secretive relationship between Google and the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), their ties to the U.S. intelligence community and the lack of transparency in their so-called transparency reports.

Still, this “flaw,” uncovered by an app developer in Sydney, Australia, is no small matter. Perhaps the most concerning aspect of the report by news.com.au is the point that the “flaw” actually “appears to be by design.”

The developer, Dan Nolan, has created an application that hit number one in the Australian app store and he says that he does not feel comfortable being the custodian of all of that personal information.

Furthermore, Nolan says that there is no reason any developer should have all of this highly personal information at their fingertips.

“Let me make this crystal clear, every App purchase you make on Google Play gives the developer your name, suburb and email address with no indication that this information is actually being transferred,” writes Nolan on his blog.

“With the information I have available to me through the checkout portal I could track down and harass users who left negative reviews or refunded the app purchase,” Nolan writes.

Nolan argues that the only way app developers should be able to get this information is if the users knowingly opt into it and “it’s made crystal clear that I’m getting this information.”

Currently, none of that takes place.

Claire Porter, the technology editor of news.com.au, points out that the problems posed by malware are even more serious than potential harassment from disgruntled app developers.

“With Google customers’ details just sitting in developers accounts, all it would take is a half decent piece of malware software for that information to be accessed,” Porter writes. “These personal details could then be used to access the users’ bank details. That’s also more than enough information to be able to access your other devices which could also be mined for more data – insurance information, other credit cards – which could then be used to access your banking credentials.”