The data company Datastream Group has received sensitive information from roughly 40,000 apps, probably without the app developers knowing about it. It reports Today’s News.
The database includes both Swedish apps and information about Swedish private individuals.
The information has been collected from all sorts of different types of apps, including weather, games and dating services.
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Location data is leaked
The information in question is location data that allows users’ exact positions and movement patterns to be tracked.
IP addresses and ID numbers have also been leaked.
The database contains approximately 380 million registered positions from mobile phones in 137 countries, including Sweden.
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The apps to watch out for
Norwegian NRKwho also obtained the data, names five particularly popular apps that have leaked sensitive information about their users to the Datastream Group:
Even the Swedish game Candy Crush Saga is said to have leaked information, but not as detailed as in many other cases.
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The app developers respond
All app developers who responded to Dagens Nyheter state that they have no business relationship with Datastream Group, and that they do not understand how the data could have been leaked.
It is thus unclear how the information has been leaked, but it is likely via advertising shown in the apps.
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