New York, February 24 (IANS): In-app advertising can put personal information of millions of smartphone users at risk of being leaked between ad networks and mobile app developers, says a new study. The researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology examined more than 200 participants who used a custom-built app for Android-based smartphones to ascertain how much a mobile app creator may uncover about users because of the personalised ads served to them. It was found that 73 percent of ad impressions for 92 percent of users were correctly aligned with their demographic profiles. The study also found that based on ads shown, a mobile app developer could learn a user’s gender with 75 percent accuracy, parental status with 66 percent accuracy and age group with 54 percent accuracy. Income, political affiliation and marital status could also be predicted with high accuracy than random guesses.
