Clueful - How to know how your iOS apps use your personal information

Clueful is an iOS and web app that shows you what information you are sharing through your iOS apps and how those apps can exploit your privacy.

Made by anti-virus software company BitDefender, it has a storied, mysterious history (that is bound by a confidentiality agreement). It was released and then pulled from the Apple App Store, presumably due to some dispute between the developers and Apple. BitDefender released a web version of the app and it’s awesome.

Clueful is a great app, particularly if your iPhone or iPad is as riddled with apps as mine are. It’s illuminating to understand what you allow these apps to track and where your permissions leave you vulnerable.

Surprise! Clueful says Facebook is pretty innocuous

It’s understood that Facebook tracks your activity on other apps (with their “ecosystem”), but it seems that they don’t use your UDID (unique device ID) to do this. Clueful reveals that Facebook can read your address book (which the @facebook email debacle brought to light), can track your location, can connect to Facebook and can store encrypted data.

Clueful’s got nothing on Twitter…

Twitter gets an even greater pass. Type “Twitter” into the Clueful tool and it returns “No interesting info about this app.” My feelings exactly.

What Clueful can show you

The big takeaway for me was how (relatively) safe bigger apps and how some smaller apps overreach their intended purpose.

One thing that should be mentioned is that Clueful has a limited database of apps. Some of the less popular and newer apps that I have (Twheel for example) aren’t available on Clueful. Despite its limitations, Clueful is a fantastic tool to help make you more aware of your digital footprint.

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Jim Dougherty

Writer and chief of miscellany at leaderswest.com

I aspire to give people something to think about rather than tell them what to do. My favorite Google Alert is “social media research,” I am increasingly compelled by Gen Z, and I appreciate good writers agnostic of where they write. At one time I was Kred’s 12th most influential social media blogger and Klout’s most influential person on the topic of David Hasselhoff. Transplant from Seattle living in Cincinnati. Haven’t entirely adopted the local sports teams yet.