The discovery was made by software developer and Pre owner Joey Hess, who found that his phone was reporting his location over a secure connection back to Palm. It also sent back information about application crashes – even those not seen by a Pre owner.

Also in the daily update sent to Palm was a list of the third party applications installed on the phone.

In its privacy policy, Palm does explain that it will gather geographical data to help with location-based services. However, commentators were puzzled as to why it needed to gather so much data and why owners were not told about what it had gathered.

Mr Hess found a way to disable the reporting by editing the phone’s software.

Palm issued a statement about Mr Hess’ discovery and said it “offers users ways to turn data collecting services on and off”.

It added: “Our privacy policy is like many policies in the industry and includes very detailed language about potential scenarios in which we might use a customer’s information, all toward a goal of offering a great user experience.”

“We appreciate the trust that users give us with their information, and have no intention to violate that trust,” said Palm.

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