When we first saw actions against spyware in WeChat and TikTok by Americanos it was like the old economy war. Only another playground. But if we look deeper, we see for sure there is more in the game. Mobvista a chines mobile ad tech company tracked and stored all information.
According to a report published by cybersecurity firm Snyk, Mintegral — a mobile programmatic advertising platform owned by Chinese mobile ad tech company Mobvista — includes an SDK component that allows it to collect URLs, device identifiers, IP Address, operating system version, and other user sensitive data from compromised apps to a remote logging server.
"The malicious code can spy on user activity by logging URL-based requests made through the app," Snyk's Alyssa Miller said in a Monday analysis. "This activity is logged to a third-party server and could potentially include personally identifiable information (PII) and other sensitive information." "In our investigation, we discovered that once the Mintegral SDK is integrated into an application, it intercepts the clicks even if Mintegral isn't enabled to serve ads," Miller said. "In this case, ad revenue that should have come back to the developer or publisher via a competing ad network will never be paid to the developer."
The information logged includes OS Version, IP Address, charging state, Mintegral SDK version, network type, model, package name, advertising identifier (IDFA or Identifier for Advertisers), and more.
"The attempts by Mintegral to conceal the nature of the data being captured, both through anti-tampering controls and a custom proprietary encoding technique, are reminiscent of similar functionality reported by researchers that analyzed the TikTok app," Miller noted.
Privacy is an act of trust today not on computer logic. It could be changed by IOS 14 but if you compare to the problems of a closed eco circuit it is only a matter of time till its replaced. Read the full story here.
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