Free flashlight app on the Play Store shared millions of users locations with advertisers

According to a complain straight from the FTC, the app “Brightest Flashlight” on the Play Store was sharing users locations and unique device IDs with advertisers without user consent. Normally, not a big deal, but this particular app has been downloaded over 50 million times. That’s a pretty large privacy scare.

There is an option in the app that disabled the location sharing, but the FTC says it “deceived consumers” as by the time it was disabled, the app had already sent off location data. Thankfully, because of the FTC complaint, the developers will have to erase all information they gleaned from the app and they’ll have to make their app more transparent to users about what it’s doing with their data.

source: FTC

via: The Verge

Come comment on this article: Free flashlight app on the Play Store shared millions of users locations with advertisers