Your game may be tracking your TV habits

AT first glance, gaming apps with names like "Pool 3D", "Beer Pong: Trickshot" and "Real Bowling Strike 10 Pin" seem innocuous. There's even one called "Honey Quest", featuring Jumbo, an animated bear.

But these apps, once downloaded onto a smartphone, have the ability to keep tabs on the viewing habits of their users - some of whom may be children - even when the games are not being played.

This is yet another example of how companies, using devices that many people feel they cannot do without, are documenting how audiences in a rapidly changing entertainment landscape are viewing television and commercials.

The apps use software from Alphonso, a startup that collects TV-viewing data for advertisers. Using a smartphone's microphone, Alphonso's software can detail what people watch by identifying audio signals in TV ads and shows, sometimes even matching that information with the places people visit and the movies they see. The information can then be used to target ads more precisely an…