Yanked iOS app Clueful is back as free Web software

A privacy-enhancing iOS app called Clueful that was yanked from the App Store for an unknown reason this summer has been re-released as a Web app.

The app is available for free online and has data on more than 100,000 apps and allows users to add comments about apps and how developers handle data.

Apple screens apps for bad behavior before they hit the App Store, but Clueful tells users what the apps they have downloaded on their iOS devices are doing with their data, such as whether the apps track location, read address books, access calendars, drain the battery and track usage through analytics networks, among other things.

Bitdefender "continues to work with Apple" to bring the app back to the App Store, the company said in a release.

The app launched in iTunes in May and sold for $3.99 and was pulled from the App Store less than a month later with no explanation from Apple. Bitdefender Chief Security Researcher Catalin Cosoi declined to say why the app was pulled, citing a confidentiality agreement app developers sign to become a developer on Apple's platform.

More than 40 percent of apps track user location, nearly 20 percent can access address books and just under 60 percent encrypt the data they collect, according to Bitdefender.

In iOS 6, due out next month, Apple will add a new privacy control panel that let's users manage which applications can access their address book and other data on the phone.