I'm the author of this article and I'd love to learn more about what you found in your research. You can reach me at craig dot silverman at buzzfeed.com.
Some numbers from the presentation
- the "GPS icon" is visible for only 0.04% of actual accesses to location data
- of 42000 apps transmitting personal information, 21000 (50%) don't use TLS and send data unencrypted
- 1,325 apps that don't have location permission, actually obtain street-level location data and transmit it home