NEW: Popular VPN And ad-blocking apps are secretly harvesting user data. I found the apps are actually owned by app analytics platform Sensor Data, which does not disclose its connection to them: https://t.co/d1nUgEOowp — Craig Silverman (@CraigSilverman) March 9, 2020
There have been apps on the Apple Store and Google Play Store that reportedly have been gathering and harvesting user's data and information on their smartphones.
An analytics firm owns these apps
According to Buzzfeed's reports, Sensor Tower, a highly popular analytics platform, has been spying on millions of users through these apps secretly. These applications are called VPN and ad-block. All of which can be found on iOS and Android devices, and have over 35 million downloads. These applications feed user data to Sensor Tower.
The company has a lot of applications
Sensor Tower owns over 20 iOS and Android apps that have introduced themselves as ad-blockers and VPNs since 2015. A handful of these has been available to Google Play store and the App Store only recently. Namely, Free and Unlimited VPN, Luna VPN, Mobile Data, and Adblock Focus. After Buzzfeed has reached out to both parties, Apple has already removed one of these, which is the Adblock Focus, and the Google Play store has also removed Mobile Data.
These applications include Luna, WiFi Rocket, WiFi Booster, Luna: Best VPN, Adblock Mobile 32, Adblock mobile, WiFi cheetah, ad Terminator, Hotspot VPB, Von VPN Proxy, and WiFi guard among others. They automatically hide and avoid restrictions, and prompts users to install a root certificate that enables them to access all data that is going through the phone. However, they have said themselves that they only collect usage and analytics data.
Sensor Tower denies everything
Sensor Tower's head of mobile insights, Randy Nelson, said that "When you consider the relationship between these types of apps and an analytics company, it makes a lot of sense - especially considering our history as a startup," and that the company does not collect personal data and information from the users. These applications have now been taken down from the App Store and Google Play store due to policy violations, according to a spokesperson from Apple. Google has also started to investigate, as well.
Buzzfeed connected all the applications to Sensor Tower when they discovered that there is code written by developers who work for the company and quickly tied them together.
Tracking activity from users is basically the foundation and purpose of the application economy, and hiding functions that are specifically designed to protect users is actually an honored tactic.
With all of that said, it is very important for users to do research on the applications they want to install before they actually do. For the sake of their privacy when it comes to using their phones, specifically ad blockers and VPN applications. It best to ask around and be smart about these things, especially if your personal data and information are all on the line of being exposed and used by other companies.
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