It's ironic to see these tracking services launch to much fanfare and pats on the back on HN every few weeks, only to be followed by the "WTF is this in my logs" posts like this one.
Good lord, it's 99.99% likely it's just for some ad targeting, and it's not like they don't disclose it in their privacy policy (http://www.cuttherope.ie/privacy.html):
We may also employ third-party ad serving and/or analytics technologies that use certain methods to collect information through the Services. These technologies may be imbedded within the Services and may collect demographic and location information as well as information from your device including, but not limited to IP address, UDID, software, applications, hardware, browser information, internet and on-line usage information and in-game information.
If you don't want this sort of thing to happen, stop agreeing to it. It's not like you need to play Cut the Rope.
No you don't, but I find it "strange" to see DEVELOPERS getting targeted. And this, by monitoring what apps a user is installing (and reinstalling). This includes and possibly even targets beta, internal, stealth mode builds. This is done by an app market vendor (Getjar) who has every motive of knowing what are the currently developing apps and who does them. This is not related to "analytics" but resembles more to some form of "insider trading", IMHO.
Everyone's being targeted. GetJar is undoubtedly receiving data from millions of phones, not just yours - you only noticed because you're a developer. GetJar has no idea you're a developer, and if they did, they wouldn't care.
The 'spy on currently developing apps' thing is a nice-sounding theory, but it's wrong. I've worked extensively in this industry (although not for GetJar), and the only developers any company in this space is interested in are the ones that are already moving a ton of units, not ones working on applications that statistically are unlikely to see the light of day or make a single sale. And they're only interested in the big developers because they want to sell them some advertising or get them to run ads in their apps. The money you can make from advertising is huge, while the money you could make from some sort of corporate espionage is tiny. (How would you even sell it?)
The data collected is almost absolutely related to ad targeting. The advertising company fetches a list of installed applications, ignores all the stuff it knows nothing about, and uses the rest to construct a profile about what you like which it can use to show you better-performing advertisements. You use Fandango? Great, we'll show you movie ads. You play Cut the Rope a lot? Great, we'll slot you into our casual gaming segment, and show you casual games.
There's still plenty to object to, if you like - sticking this in a paid game is kind of lame, even if they did disclose it - but it's not at all what you think.
Ok, you may have point, but it also is plausible what has been said, that being an app store (like Google Play is) what you are actually looking for is not an ad profile, but a developer profile.
If I would be running an app store, I would certainly be interested in the new games/apps that are going to come out and see if I can convince the developers to list it on my store first, given certain incentives (because if I have apps I make money, so my actual target as an app store are the developers).
Notice that GetJar does not describe itself as an add network but an app store of some sort. If they are indeed an ad network, this behavior is somewhat expected, otherwise...
GetJar's been trying the third-party / bundled app store schtick for a while, but the money in this corner of the world is in driving application installs through advertising. Here's an example from an industry news site:
9 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 34.4 ms ] threadI don't see the "sendInstalledApps()" lines in my logs, neither the "FOUND_INSTALLED" part in the "Sending POST data" line.
I have the com.zeptolab.ctr.paid app too.
Maybe they changed that in the last versions?
It's ironic to see these tracking services launch to much fanfare and pats on the back on HN every few weeks, only to be followed by the "WTF is this in my logs" posts like this one.
We may also employ third-party ad serving and/or analytics technologies that use certain methods to collect information through the Services. These technologies may be imbedded within the Services and may collect demographic and location information as well as information from your device including, but not limited to IP address, UDID, software, applications, hardware, browser information, internet and on-line usage information and in-game information.
If you don't want this sort of thing to happen, stop agreeing to it. It's not like you need to play Cut the Rope.
The 'spy on currently developing apps' thing is a nice-sounding theory, but it's wrong. I've worked extensively in this industry (although not for GetJar), and the only developers any company in this space is interested in are the ones that are already moving a ton of units, not ones working on applications that statistically are unlikely to see the light of day or make a single sale. And they're only interested in the big developers because they want to sell them some advertising or get them to run ads in their apps. The money you can make from advertising is huge, while the money you could make from some sort of corporate espionage is tiny. (How would you even sell it?)
The data collected is almost absolutely related to ad targeting. The advertising company fetches a list of installed applications, ignores all the stuff it knows nothing about, and uses the rest to construct a profile about what you like which it can use to show you better-performing advertisements. You use Fandango? Great, we'll show you movie ads. You play Cut the Rope a lot? Great, we'll slot you into our casual gaming segment, and show you casual games.
There's still plenty to object to, if you like - sticking this in a paid game is kind of lame, even if they did disclose it - but it's not at all what you think.
If I would be running an app store, I would certainly be interested in the new games/apps that are going to come out and see if I can convince the developers to list it on my store first, given certain incentives (because if I have apps I make money, so my actual target as an app store are the developers).
Notice that GetJar does not describe itself as an add network but an app store of some sort. If they are indeed an ad network, this behavior is somewhat expected, otherwise...
http://www.gomonews.com/even-more-ad-funding-getjar-monetise...