In today’s Quick Hits, Google gets grief over a Street View picture of a woman’s underwear, the Wall Street Journal digs into the privacy problem with smart phones, and the UK confirms the deletion of Google Street View data.

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Wall Street Journal Report Shows How Smart Phones Breach User Privacy

In a new investigative report, the Wall Street Journal shows how the iPhone and Android smart phones have violated user privacy by sharing device information to third-party companies without user consent. According to the report, “An examination of 101 popular smartphone “apps”—games and other software applications for iPhone and Android phones—showed that 56 transmitted the phone’s unique device ID to other companies without users’ awareness or consent. Forty-seven apps transmitted the phone’s location in some way. Five sent age, gender and other personal details to outsiders.”

When combined with a browsing history and other personal information, a unique mobile device ID gives third-party tracking companies more than enough data to create an advanced digital dossier of the user. In an article for Macworld, Les Friedman argues that the Wall Street Journal’s report is overblown, claiming that they can’t reveal exact locations, only approximations. Check out the Reputation.com Resource Center to learn more about protecting your mobile phone privacy.

Larry Magid: Thoughts on Facebook’s Facial Recognition Technology

In a recent column for the San Jose Mercury News, child safety advocate and Internet expert Larry Magid discusses Facebook’s recently announced facial recognition technology. In his article, Magid praises Facebook’s decision to not auto-tag faces, but rather to require a human to confirm its accuracy first. Magid also praises Facebook’s privacy controls around the new tagging feature. At the end of his article, Magid does ask some interesting questions about the future of facial recognition.

“Will technology, for example, eventually be able to calculate not just the ethnicity and gender of a person but the approximate age and even social status? Add that to the information that companies already know about us and we have the possibility of profiling based not just on our Web surfing habits but what we look like.”

“Who Has Deleted Ya?” Scam on Facebook

A new piece of spam is spreading through Facebook disguised as an app that supposedly shows who among your Facebook friends has deleted you. Whenever a new user clicks on the app, the same link appears on their profile. The phony “Who Has Deleted Ya?” app directs users to a survey that promises a new iPhone or iPad. Obviously, there is no prize, only one spammers attempts to beef up his commission earnings by getting people to take a survey.

UK Street View Data Deleted

According to a report in the BBC, “Personal data collected by Google’s UK Street View cars has been deleted. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which has been criticised for not taking a more hardline stance against Google, confirmed the deletion.  The first batch of wi-fi data, which included snippets of e-mails, URLs and passwords, was deleted in November.” The issue of what to do with the harvested data has played out differently around the world. In the United States, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has demanded Google turn over the data it harvested rather than destroy it.

Strange Story: Japanese Woman Sues Google Over Street View Image of Her Underwear

In a truly bizarre story that could only happen in the Internet age, a woman in Japan is suing Google after she found a picture of her underwear hanging up on a clothesline in a Google Street View image of her home. The woman claims that she “was overwhelmed with anxiety that [she] might be the target of a sex crime” and has sued Google for approximately $7,000. To the company’s credit, Google removed the image when she filed her law suit.