Analysts discovered that the innocent building-block game “Minecraft” has been one of the main causes of iPhone data leak.
For what it’s worth though, aside from the interactive game, several apps available online steal information from its users as well—including the famous video platform, TikTok.
iPhone Data Leak: Delete Your ‘Minecraft’ Now
“Minecraft” could appear as a harmless and enjoyable entertaining diversion from the world. However, the founder and business development strategist of FindPeopleFast Daniela Sawyer shared that the game is one such program that has been unexpectedly transferring user data towards its servers and third-party sites, per She Finds.
Sawyer shared that the game was discovered sending user data to the mobile analytics organization AppsFlyer.
Aside from the fact that AppsFlyer is a mobile analytics organization, Crozdesk added that it is also a marketing platform that helps programmers, businesses, and marketing agencies monitor and improve their acquisition funnel. Through the platform’s connection with a variety of apps, advertisers can deliver complete advertising materials as well.
AppsFlyer was created to help data-driven marketers make responsible decisions in order to improve their return of investment (ROI) and expand their mobile business. It also offers in-depth statistics, performance measurements and customizable reporting.
With that being stated, it proves that the iPhone data leak of “Minecraft” is real. Despite the allegations, Microsoft, the company behind “Minecraft,” has not yet released any statement addressing the issue.
“Microsoft, the company behind Minecraft, has no clear indication regarding this behavior, and the support staff also do not comment on this matter. When these apps share our data in such a secret manner, many questions arise regarding their intention and credibility. The data transmitted can be used in several ways that may be harmless as well as harmful,” Sawyer pointed out, according to She Finds.
Meanwhile, it is not only “Minecraft” that shares their users’ data as several apps discreetly do this as well.
Read Also: TikTok Video: Viral TikToker Creates Epic Replica of Harry Potter’s Nimbus 2000 Flying Broom!
3 iPhone Apps That Shares Your Data
As mentioned, other apps steals or gives away user data as well. Popular Mechanics has shared several applications that people should delete right now to decrease the chance of any data leaks.
TikTok
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced in early July that the U.S. is considering banning TikTok, which is an extremely popular social media app where teenagers make and share short comedy videos, lip-sync clips and dances.
Part of the animosity toward TikTok, which is owned and operated by Beijing-based ByteDance, arises from allegations that the site infringes on users’ privacy, potentially passing data on to the oppressive Chinese government. However, there is no found evidence regarding state-sponsored espionage.
Despite the unsupported allegation, TikTok users must keep in mind that the app does capture a lot of information from its users.
According to research, users of the app, as well as on Instagram and Twitter, spend too much time on it, leading to anxiety and sadness. Aside from this, Cybersecurity risks are also a source of concern.
Last year, the Cambridge Analytica incident resulted in 87 million compromised profiles, in which the contents were exposed in a large data breach. It led to the U.S. government and the Federal Trade Commission to look and investigate the matter.
In addition, not only does Facebook continue to experience data breaches regularly, but the corporation is also harvesting users’ data to create a profile for advertising. The Facebook app can snap photographs and videos, record audio, add and remove contacts, read your text messages and more.
CamScanner
Researchers from the Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky discovered malware in numerous versions of the CamScanner software in June.
“Trojan-Dropper module extracts and runs another malicious module from an encrypted file included in the app’s resources. This “dropped” malware, in turn, is a Trojan-Downloader that downloads more malicious modules depending on what its creators are up to at the moment. For example, an app with this malicious code may show intrusive ads and sign users up for paid subscriptions,” the researchers furthered on the blog post.
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