Some Popular iPhone Apps Secretly Record Your Screen for Analytics Purposes

[Klae17]

Why? You're the number one cheerleader around here promoting lies about Malware in the Play Store while the App store is so perfectly safe.

So yeah, what happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone unless you use apps or FaceTime and unless you live in Russia or China where servess are located that houses your data.

Huh? I rarely post on here but okay.

 

[JGIGS]

I smell the lawsuits coming up

I'm ready to sue Air Canada. That one is shocking to me anyway.

 

[Klae17]

Wait how is this a big deal ? You are in fact using the app, so they in fact know everything your doing. Remember only the app you are using can grab your screen, what’s the issue ? The developer built the app, knows what it looks like, knows what your pressing.. why is this news ? Is the information being transferred outside of the app developers control ? If so then I see it as a concern. This is no different than google analytics. It only captures that’s specific app. And this SDK is not specific to iPhone, it’s available for various platforms, including android. The good think about apples store is they can actually detect and remove all apps who are using this if they wanted too. Especially if this is not disclosed to a user

You clearly didn’t read the article.

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

People wanted free apps. Well this is what you get when you use free apps. Massive invasions of privacy for the purpose of mining and monetizing your personal information.

Expedia is a free app? Then how come I use it to spend money?

 

[Hawkw1nd]

People wanted free apps. Well this is what you get when you use free apps. Massive invasions of privacy for the purpose of mining and monetizing your personal information.

Apps like Expedia and Air Canada are free because they are trying to sell you a service, in this case travel. Users should not expect to have their privacy invaded, too. They’re not providing a free email service, after all.

 

[metsjetsfan]

So are the crazy force app quitters finally right then?

 

[keysofanxiety]

Ah crap. These can’t monitor screen viewing in other apps, right?

If so, hope they haven’t been watching from 11:30PM most evenings.

 

[yojason]

This is a load of ********. We all know it. Nowhere does it say we will monitor your ****ing keystrokes and ****.

Monitoring usage information means they are monitoring keystrokes and swipes. They monitor ALL the ways that your interact with the app.

 

[bmac89]

This is partially why I use as few apps as possible. I’ll go on a website on my desktop with proper blockers in place if I need to. My phone is a minimal use device these days.

I always wonder if some adblockers collect information. Once I used Ghostery and immediately after I received junk emails that suspiciously seemed to be linked. I then discovered the Ghostery adblocker was actually owned by an ad company. I uninstalled.

 

[nutmac]

Here are some of the Glassbox's customers. Not all maybe guilty of recording data, but why take a chance?

I suspect this page will be gone soon, so here are some of the major clients.

Banking and Investment:

• Bank Fideuram
• Bank Hapoalim
• Bank Leumi
• Citibank
• ING
• Investec
• Israel Discount Bank
• JP Morgan Chase
• Santander

Insurance

• Admiral
• Amica
• Direct Seguros
• Guardian
• The Hartford
• UnipolSai
• Zurich

Travel

• Air Canada
• Expedia
• Hotels.com
• Singapore Airlines
• Yatya

Telecom

• Tracfone

Retail

• Abercrombie & Fitch
• Hollister

 

[brian3uk]

Another example of why apple shouldn’t use privacy as a selling point. There are a million privacy issues with any technology. Unless they have full control over apps and better testing of their own software then they need to back off the privacy ads.

 

[yojason]

I always wonder if some adblockers collect information. Once I used Ghostery and immediately after I received junk emails that suspiciously seemed to be linked. I then discovered the Ghostery adblocker was actually owned by an ad company. I uninstalled.

Dang that’s smart.
1. Be an ad agency
2. Develop ad blocker app
3. Claim app blocks up to 99% of ads (the other 1% are my clients’ ads. We don’t block those.)
4. $$

Let’s get on this!

 

[Heineken]

Monitoring usage information means they are monitoring keystrokes and swipes. They monitor ALL the ways that your interact with the app.

Like me entering my cc details. Real nice.

 

[bmac89]

intrusive analytics services that capture detailed data like taps, swipes, and even screen recordings without customer knowledge

(Bold emphasis is mine)

So does it records the whole screen including slide over and split screen or just within the app?

This is a major privacy and security breach.
So much for Apple’s concern for Privacy, sandboxed apps and strict App Store policies.

At Apple, we believe privacy is a fundamental human right.

 

[avanpelt]

That ‘What Happens on Your iPhone Stays on Your iPhone’ billboard in Vegas has been transformed into a big joke in just one month’s time.

 

[slide_to_unlock]

F**k this. I am going back to Flip To Unlock Phone. Hello Moto.

 

[now i see it]

The more non-developers find out what's really going on behind the scenes in iOS apps, the more we shudder.
It's becoming clearer and clearer why WWDC is so popular: Data mining is a drug.

Beware everyone out there- smartphones will be the end of all of us.

 

[magicschoolbus]

Wtf this is not okay

 

[Spacewiz]

Yep. Unless Apple gives these "crapps"...er...apps the boot right quick, I see a good old-fashioned flip phone in my future. I have several in storage that will still work just fine.

 

[Mick-Mac]

I'm just going to say as a consumer that I see all this as Apple's fault for leaving a hole in their security. If there's an exploit to be had, somebody *will* take advantage of it (and that's never going to change) so Apple needs to do a better job protecting it's customers.

 

[Spacewiz]

F**k this. I am going back to Flip To Unlock Phone. Hello Moto.

Roger that. Been thinking about it for a while now...this is but another nudge in that directionb.

 

[drumcat]

Not sure I understand why this isn't one of those "colour bar" things at the top of the screen. They have red, blue, and green... maybe in order to record the screen, it has a yellow bar at the top?

I'm not sure you could convince me that the ability to screen cap should be removed, but two things:

1) You should have to consent, just like you have to consent for the microphone as an example.
2) Eating up mobile bandwidth is very unbecoming. Are these only sent via wifi? Probably not.

 

[Andres Cantu]

There’s no App Store guideline that prohibits collecting usage information. To the contrary, Apple permits collection of usage information if the user consents.

Consent is generally satisfied by providing a terms of service link and consent is basically continuing to use the app after being afforded the opportunity to review the terms.
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Apple’s arrogance is the reason why Expedia collects user data? Okay.

Obviously not, but you can’t deny the timing of this.

 

[sdf]

Looks like Apple needs to tighten the app noose a little more. The App and MAS store is supposed to be a sandbox for many important reasons and privacy is paramount.

I imagine the apps are recording their own screens, not other apps. That's a trickier problem, since if you instead sent every tap you'd effectively have the same thing.

 

[MagicBoy]

The glassbox usage covered in the EULA that the users probably haven't read?