The user data collected by some iOS apps can be correlated to real-world identities, posing a privacy risk to iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users. According to research from Bucknell University, a majority of iOS apps transmit user data back to their own servers. But because some store more info than others—and in some cases, in plaintext—it can be easily pieced together to reveal more about individual users than they bargained for.

Bucknell University Assistant Director of Information Security and Networking Eric Smith authored the paper, entitled “iPhone Applications & Privacy Issues: An Analysis of Application Transmission of iPhone Unique Device Identifiers (UDIDs).” He and his team studied a total of 57 applications from the App Store—a combination of the Top 25 Free apps as well as some from the News: Top Free app sections. Sixty-eight percent of those applications transmitted the device’s UDID back to the app’s servers, though “several instances” were encrypted via SSL.

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