Companies are using free smartphone apps as ‘fronts’ to allow them to spy on users’ text messages, intercept calls and even track their location, it was claimed yesterday.

By accepting little-read terms and conditions when downloading apps, consumers give developers the right to harvest vast swathes of private information.

Facebook insists that people using its Android smartphone app agree to give them permission to read their text messages, although the internet giant said it had not yet taken advantage of this right.

Privacy campaigners criticised the abuse of personal information. Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, described the apps market as ‘an unregulated Wild West’.

Emma Draper, of the Privacy International campaign group, said: ‘Your personal information is a precious commodity, and companies will go to great lengths to get their hands on as much of it as possible.’

The Facebook app has been downloaded to Google’s Android smartphones more than 100million times, yet few of its users are thought to know that they have agreed to give Facebook the right ‘to read SMS messages stored on your device or SIM card’. Apps are also used to identify the location of users through global positioning software and access the phone numbers and email addresses of their contacts.

A spokesman for Facebook said the request for permission to read text messages was to allow the app to read and write data between itself and the phone’s SMS feature, rather than for the company to trawl individuals’ messages.

He added: ‘If Facebook ultimately launches any feature that makes use of these permissions, we will ensure that this is accompanied by appropriate guidance.’

She tells her children to do as she says and not as she does.
But the words of mother of 14 Joanne Watson – who receives more than £2,000 a month in state handouts – have fallen on deaf ears.

Her 15-year-old daughter Mariah is pregnant, the father has ‘left the scene’, and the youngster is about to start living off benefits.

Mrs Watson, 40, is raising her giant brood alone after parting from her husband John, 46, three years ago, and breaking up with subsequent partner Craig le Sauvage, 35, last year.
Despite this, she has still managed to squirrel away enough cash for a £1,600 breast enhancement and a sunbed. She claims she has always encouraged her daughters to use contraception – but, inevitably, it seems they would rather follow the family tradition.

Mariah’s pregnancy comes after Mrs Watson’s oldest daughter Natasha, 22, got pregnant with her son Branford, now six, when she was 16. Her second eldest daughter Shanice, 19, also got pregnant at 16 with her 22-month-old son Marley.

Mariah says she has no concerns about becoming a teenage mother, as it seems the most natural thing in the world. Initially, she and her child will be supported by the taxpayer.
She is expected to move into a housing complex for single mothers and will receive supplementary benefit and child allowance for her baby.

The youngster, who is due to have a boy, said: ‘I’m not nervous. I’ve been around babies my whole life so I know what to expect and that I can handle it. The father isn’t involved and I don’t want him to be either. I’m really excited and think I will be a great mum.’
Mrs Watson, who had her first child at 18, said: ‘Of course no one wants their teenage daughters to get pregnant.

‘I’ve always urged them to use contraception – but if they refuse to there’s not much I can do about it. But I don’t believe in abortions, and Mariah wanted to have the baby, so now I just have to do my best to support her.

Rihanna's raunchy performances are known to be hot and fiery.
But the singer's stage literally caught on fire last night during a concert stop in Dallas as part of her Loud tour forcing her to cancel her performance.
The show started normally with the Bajan songstress singing and dancing on stage but when a light on a beam above the star set ablaze it caused panic in the American Airlines Center.


Rihanna, 23, was was quickly escorted from the stage when her crew noticed the trouble above.
The fire raged for up to five minutes with revellers screaming and taking pictures of the incident.
Fans who were near the front of the stage were moved back towards the exit doors.
CBS Dallas-Fort Worth report that the blaze started from the pyrotechnics that were built to bring a colourful backdrop to the Bajan star's stage show.
Although stage hands put out the initial fire, the emergency services were also called.
Dallas Fire Rescue Captain Johnny Bates told the CBS affiliate that there were no serious problems as a result of the fire.
'One of our engine crews did enter the building but crew members with the AAC or concert put out the initial fire. Everything is under control and there are no injuries,' he explained.
But the Umbrella star was upset that she had to cancel the tour date but said she would make it up to her fans.
She tweeted: 'DALLAS!!! We set the stage on FYAH tonight!!! LITERALLY!!! I'm so pissed, I was havin so much fun wit yall too!!! I gotta come back man!!'
Rihanna added that she was 'heading into a production meeting to find out exactly what happened'.