SEOUL, Dec. 5 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co. refuted on Monday allegations that its Galaxy smartphones carry applications that collect personal data, such as contact numbers and location information.

"Samsung never collected or used private information of smartphone users. All applications provided by Samsung have no ability to collect private data," the company said in a statement.
The denial came after an academic study claimed that pre-loaded mobile applications in the Galaxy S, the Galaxy S2 and the Galaxy Note devices can access and store personal information.