Hundreds of US apps with government tracking capabilities

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“A new report reveals an unpleasant discovery. Apparently hundreds of apps are contaminated with frameworks that allow for government monitoring. It involves the US company Anomaly Six, which has ties to the military and intelligence community. The US contractor obtains location data from more than 500 applications (apps) with hundreds of millions of users – so this time not China’s KP.”

https://borncity.com/win/2020/08/10/hundreds-of-us-apps-with-government-tracking-capabilities/

OK…now for “The List of 500”. Oy vey.

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doriel, Fred

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[@] nibbled-to-death-by-ducks : Thank you, do you have info if banking_apps are vulnerable to this kind of snooping?

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I suspect that is highly unlikely:
https://www.androidcentral.com/us-government-contractor-embedded-tracking-software-apps-millions-smartphone-users

The contractor — a Virginia-based company called Anomaly Six LLC — pays mobile developers to include its in-house tracking code within their apps. The trackers then collect anonymized data from our phones and Anomaly Six aggregates that data and sells it to the US government.

https://www.androidauthority.com/government-tracking-apps-1145989/

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I expect differently Kisty, the apps are misused, there is a great flaw concerning android chips; I did ask around with some it_security relations in banking and finance in EU. And after that the great silence began. It’s difficult to see apart the state- and financial security

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Your local bank is highly unlikely to be using a Virgina-based company to pay app developers to include its tracking code in their apps, which is then collated and sold to the US government.
No?

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Kirsty wrote:

Your local bank is highly unlikely to be using a Virgina-based company

That’s right.

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Many transactions are already required to be reported to governments to track money laundering and blatant illegal activities.  Banking institutions do this; I’d be far more concerned about banking apps getting hacked or personal info gained elsewhere, from syncing or cloud storage, leading to theft vs. apps reporting transactions.

JMO but I don’t trust anything on a phone to be secure or private.  The phone universe is too large, devices too mobile, phone design too leaky and users too addicted to keep out all the meanies.  Check important accounts regularly.

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Fred

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Sorry, Fred, no. Until The 500 List appears, I’m in the dark about that.

I will say this: I would no more use a phone for payment, banking, or any other related financial activity than I would be inclined to juggle rattlesnakes.

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Fred

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If WSJ reported it, it’s meh.  They present themselves as naive Masters of the Obvious about tech “conspiracies” their readers should be jaded to by now; guess not.  Governments already have the ability to track phone users clandestinely so why bother with Anomaly Six?

Phones (telecommunication devices) are regulated differently than computers; they’re inherently non-private.  Threats notwithstanding, as simple as it is to set up shell companies, if governments aren’t buying the same types of data anyone can, it would be baffling.

Anomaly Six got their data from app developers.  Let’s legislate this behavior out of existence!  Yeah, GDPR’s done virtually nothing, Tech makes so much money, the industry just does what it wants until caught, pays fines or counter sues, then goes back to doing the same things.  Break up time.

Sad state for sure.  All those wi-fi networks that show up when you go online?  If any one of them is releasing geo info…

This FOIR is interesting:

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/seattle-69/anomaly-six-seattle-police-department-100697/

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anonymous wrote:

Banking institutions do this; I’d be far more concerned about banking apps getting hacked or personal info gained elsewhere, from syncing or cloud storage, leading to theft vs. apps reporting transactions.

This is exactly my point: when asking around this is where the great silence began. The banks normally report analomies to the State Bank, and not through the GRDP-channels.

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Is this thread ONLY about Android phones?

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Yes

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Mele20

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Thank you for your article, no more payments through Android OS I guess.
But am I really surprised? I should say no, since we live in era with superior technology. There is enormous data gathered about us. It depends on how interesting, illegal or wealthy you are, so your data can be used against you. General data about us are used for election campaigns and marketing. To strenghten someone’s power, you know.

Some organisations are really outside “democracy” boundaries. Call me conspirational theoretic, but honestly, apart this specific article mentioned by NibbledToDeathByDucks, does someone think, that no other company is misusing information technology against us?

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