Think Your Smartphone is Private?

Think again.  According to the Wall Street Journal's terribly interesting interactive "What They Know" infographic, every major app on iPhone and Andriod phones send along little things like your phone's ID, your name, your demographic information, and more without your consent or knowledge.  Apps that are the worst offenders include major players like Pandora, Angry Birds, Netflix, and Yelp.

As an avid social media guy, it really doesn't bother me much.  I'm pretty free with most of my information, including posting my thoughts on Twitter and letting people virtually follow me around on Foursquare.  

My issue is that some apps, including the wildly popular Angry Birds, have the ability to send not only your information, but information from your address book to advertisers and data collection facilities.  I'm not saying you should stop using all these apps, but you should know what information they are sucking out of your phone along the way.