Every keystroke you make in certain apps is monitored – without you knowing it.
Big companies like Hollister, Expedia, and Hotels.com (hotel booking) track every click in their apps. In most cases, it’s impossible to know, nor is it necessary to ask for permission from app users.
This is written by the technology website TechCrunch.
To be safe, you should expect all apps to collect your information.
Many large companies manage the information they receive through other providers, such as Glassbox. Their goal is to obtain information and make it available to large companies. They serve as a middle station between you and the company’s application itself.
It was at this intermediate station that serious security flaws were revealed.
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Dangerous security hole
There is one security flaw in particular that has sparked strong reactions from analysts and technology experts.
When you enter credit card information, for example, it should be “masked” so that it is unreadable for the provider. But this does not happen in all cases. Companies like Glassbox simply monitor and create a surveillance video of every keystroke you make in the app itself.
The website writes that it has discovered that apps such as hotel booking, travel, airlines, banks and phone companies are monitoring this and storing your information.
Already hacked
One of the companies that monitors everything is Air Canada, a major airline in North America. It was revealed that their app does not hide credit card and user information. Not long ago, 20,000 profiles were hacked and transmitted.
– This breach means that all Air Canada employees, and anyone else accessing the database, can see unencrypted credit card information and passwords, a mobile expert tells TechCrunch.
For many, this is worrying and signals to users that most of what you put on your phone could, in principle, end up being easily accessible to companies, analytics agencies, or go astray altogether.
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FBI Denied Access
In 2016, there was a big dispute between one of the world’s largest companies, Apple, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
As part of a major terrorism investigation, the FBI asked Apple for help in unlocking a cell phone. It was rejected by Apple. Which called it all about “freedom and rights.”
However, it now turns out that the company that claims to prioritize privacy has potentially significant security flaws.
In response to TechCrunch, both the companies and the intermediary Glassbox confirm that they do not need to ask permission to obtain this information.
This puts users in a unique situation. They are not asked to allow companies to collect this information – nor are they aware of the collection.
The company isn’t alone in doing this type of monitoring. Vendors like Appsee, UXCam, and Mixpanel offer similar services for larger companies looking to gain insights into their customers.
Most went unnoticed until there was a backlash after Mixpanel collected users’ passwords.
