US federal jury investigates how Android and Apple apps use private data

An investigation has been launched by the US authorities into how customer data is used by some popular applications created to run on mobile platforms of Apple Inc and Google Inc.

In a regulatory filing this week online radio service Pandora reported that US Federal grand jury subpoenaed the service to provide information. According to the company it is not a target of investigation and similar subpoenas were sent to the publishers of numerous other smartphone applications.

There was no mention of when Pandora received the subpoena. The company only mentioned it in an amended filing ahead of a public offering of around $100 million expected later this year.

The Web radio company has more than 80 million registered users some of whom use mobile apps to access the music service beyond their personal computers.

Privacy advocates are increasingly expressing their concerns that popular applications such as Pandora's can disclose critical information about a user such as location, gender and age.