Concerns about information security and privacy are a natural aftermath in the digital era of mobile and maximized connectivity. The latest raised red flag for privacy issues concerns iPhone Apps.  A study conducted by Bucknell University reveals several possible security glitches that you might find in some iPhone Apps.

Here’s how it works:  several applications acquire user information, which is later transmitted without encryption and stored in plain text on the company servers. This can materialize into a serious threat if it includes critical information that can be pieced together for identity theft. Details of the research are reported as follows:

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. This in itself isn’t much cause for alarm—it’s likely that your own UDID has been bandied about a few times online already. However, Smith warned that many of the apps that collected UDID data also requested user credentials, and that personally identifiable information was often affiliated with their accounts. Apps that did so included ones from Amazon, Chase Bank, Target, and Sam’s Club.

Until now, Android was the one getting lashes from critics over security concerns. There were several observations about applications which were putting consumer information at risk when shared through an Android apple. Moreover, in a recent development Apple made its rules around app approval more lenient. This is good news for developers but indicates and gestures users to be more wary of what they download. We highly recommend precautionary measures (liking checking the validity of the application), before submitting personal and financial information.