http://www.boston.com/business/technology/2012/09/02/smartphone-apps-track-u... Some smartphone apps collect and transmit sensitive information stored on a phone, including location, contacts, and Web browsing histories, even when the apps are not being used by the phone's owner, according to two researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It seems like people are no longer in control of their own privacy," said Frances Zhang, a master's degree student in computer science at MIT. Zhang and fellow researcher Fuming Shih, a computer science doctoral candidate, found that some popular apps for phones running Google Inc.'s Android operating system are continually collecting information without informing the phone's owner. The popular game Angry Birds uses the phone's GPS and Wi-Fi wireless networking features to track the owner's location, even when he's not playing the game, for example. Another game, Bowman, collects information from the phone's Internet browser, including what websites the owner has been visiting. And WhatsApp, a popular text-messaging program, scans the user's address book when it is seemingly idle. ------------------------------