[GoodThings2Life]

Regarding the original post, I have no reason to doubt the story as it's explained. I also believe Rainfreak's contact. So the discrepancy is a mystery, but I don't see a need to be paranoid about this.

For starters, in terms of privacy, you're giving up a large amount just using a Google service, because their entire business operation is centered around "index everything" and making everything accessible. But, we all know this, it's why we use their search engine or services to begin with... we want access to everything.

Also, think of all the services you use... Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, etc... even with the tightest restrictions, you still have connections and friends that you share with, and that gets shared, and the moment you walk outside and interact with people you begin sharing things about yourself.

Point is this... it's something we have to make a conscious choice to minimize our privacy risks. We set the privacy settings we can, and we think twice before we click download, and pay attention to which apps grant which rights.

Oh, and if I were a betting man, I'd bet that one of the Sprint stock apps is violating the Sprint/Google terms of service agreements...