Be careful about the apps you install! Some have no respect for your privacy and spy on everything you do on your phone. This is the case of this game, although downloaded by millions of users.
You should always be wary of the applications you download, including from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store! Because just because they have passed the app store security tests does not mean they are safe, far from it! The proof is in the dozens of corrupted apps that Google discovers and deletes every month. But malware is not the only threat. Sometimes the danger comes from the lack of confidentiality and the exploitation of your personal data.
And don’t be fooled by the popularity of the application, it is not a guarantee! The Mobilsicher platform, supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV), analyzed a mobile game downloaded no less than 100 million times on the Play Store – it is also available on the App Store. And, according to the results of this analysis, it should be deleted immediately if you value your privacy.
This particularly invasive game is Flight Pilot Simulator 3D, a flight simulator developed by Wildlife Studios. Tests revealed the presence of twenty trackers in the app, little spies that track the user’s activities, without them realizing it, obviously. Most are linked to specialized third-party companies that harvest identity and activity information to resell it for advertising purposes, and some come from companies well known for data mining, such as Amazon, Meta (Facebook ) or Google.
That’s not all ! In addition to “trackers”, Mobilsicher has identified seven authorizations granted by default, without explicit user consent! Some mainly concern game functions (access to networks, Wi-Fi connection, in-app purchases via the Google Play billing service, etc.). But others seem much more indiscreet, and unrelated to how the game works. For example, personal data such as email addresses and user IDs, but also approximate and exact location as well as device IDs. and in-app messages are also collected.
So yes, this game may be very good, as evidenced by user ratings on the Play Store and App Store. But given the amount and type of personal data it collects without saying anything, we can’t recommend enough that you avoid it. And uninstall it immediately if you downloaded it.