Apple removes hundreds of apps on the App Store: They collected private data from users
Apple has removed 256 app in the App Store developed with SDK developed by third parties with private APIs that collected user data.
The Cupertino company has announced that it has eliminated ” many ” applications on the App Store, the virtual store of specific app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The software on which Apple has taken steps made use of a tool for advertising third-party developed by Youmi able to collect private data from the device: its serial number, the email associated with the account and the list of Apple applications installed on the smartphone.
To have revealed the situation was at first SourceDNA, publishing a specific report last Sunday. The Cupertino company has responded within hours, stating that it had eliminated the applications developed that had used the SDK indicted.
” We have identified a group of applications that use an SDK for third-party advertising developed by Youmi, the provider of mobile advertising, which uses private APIs to collect private information such as the user’s email address and the identity of the device, and sends them to the corporate network of the company “, has said Apple. ” It is a violation of our guidelines on security and privacy. The apps that use the SDK of Youmi will be removed from the App Store and any new apps submitted on the App Store that use this SDK will be rejected. ”
SourceDNA had specified that it had identified 256 app making use SDK of Youmi, but Apple has not yet neither confirmed nor denied that number. The problem appears limited. However, only in China, since the apps involved in the case are not used in other markets.
Apple has recently tried to push their own on the aspect of security and privacy on their devices without forgetting to throw some verbal jab at the competition. And in this surprising that hundreds of applications with these features has passed the checks of the App Store, and have managed to steal sensitive information of users of the platform. Apparently, Youmi has carefully studied the methods applied for extortion data, releasing first reliable applications and then add them later and gradually the functionality prohibited by Regulation.
Youmi obscured the code ” prohibited ” in a manner particularly shrewd, even managing to find the serial number of the device calculating it based on the features built-in hardware. Apple prohibits iOS 8 on access to this information device, with Youmi, who tried to circumvent restrictions to better profile in a way forced the user without his knowledge.
