Apple prides itself on the security of its operating system and even considers itself a global leader in privacy. At the same time, a number of popular applications have been found to create records during user swipes and clicks. Naturally, they do not ask permission for these actions. The list of apps with a shaky track record includes: Hollister, Expedia, Air Canada, Hotels.com. All of them are still available on the official App Store.
Original statement
Tech Crunch reported on Thursday:
“A couple of well-known iOS applications, without asking or informing the user, record all his actions. This includes: travel app, airline programs, mobile operator, bank, financial advisors. Even worse, if the application is designed to hide individual fields of information, it deliberately exposes sensitive user data.“.
What else is known?
IPhone apps like Singapore Airlines, Hotels.com, Abercrombie & Fitch use Glassbox in their own utilities. This is a system from a customer relations analytics company. It is one of the many firms that is introducing session recording technology into applications. The technology provides the developer with the knowledge of how the user interacts with their application.
The data obtained in the dark way are used by companies to better understand why their software product may fail. Such information is also used for the most effective marketing, respectively, increasing the level of income. Such companies did not appear yesterday, and they are only gaining a foothold in the market.
This may not be detrimental to the user’s safety, but still there are no entries in the privacy policy about the recording of the smartphone screen. Any covert surveillance is usually taken with hostility, so let’s look at Apple’s reaction.