Imagine getting a telemarketing phone call asking if you’d like to upgrade to the paid version of the free app you just downloaded onto your iPhone. Well, this is reportedly happening to users of mogoRoad, a traffic monitoring app available on iTunes in Switzerland. Several users have commented in the App Store that they’ve received such phone calls from the developer pitching an upgrade.
This should raise major red flags about privacy on the iPhone. There have been such concerns since the early days of third-party apps. The earliest example may have been when the game Aurora Feint game was yanked from the App Store when it was alleged it was sending the contacts list of the iPhone unencrypted to the developer’s servers.
As for the case of mogoRoad, Apple’s SDK doesn’t officially supply a way for developers to access the iPhone’s phone number, but French site Mac 4 Ever has discovered that it’s not only possible but relatively simple to do.
I’m guessing this is prohibited in the iPhone SDK’s terms of use and Apple will clamp down fast on the developer, but it’s a good reminder that when you connect anything to the Internet, whether it’s your phone or computer, the data you store on it is potentially compromisable.
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#1 by Eros Resmini on December 10th, 2009
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Eros from Aurora Feint here, very interesting story here and wanted to offer some commentary: When we initially overlooked this privacy issue early in the App Store days it raised new concerns about information access granted on app-enabled mobile devices. We learned developers cannot forget their responsibility to respect and protect our customers privacy. Good news is after addressing our little hiccup the Aurora Feint game shot back up the charts!