Recently, Apple and Google’s online market took down a popular mobile application ToTok developed in the UAE.
The New York Times reported that many users installed the application ToTok on their phones. So their conversations, location movements and other details have been monitored by the UAE government.
Apple told that ToTok had been removed from its app store for review. But Google said that they remove the app from the Google software store “due to policy issues.”
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According to the New York Times, ToTok has millions of users in the UAE and surrounding areas.
Patrick Wardell, a security researcher said that ToTok appears to be part of a massive surveillance operation. It also may provide an opportunity to gain insight into a large part of the country’s population. ToTok appears to be tricking users of iPhones and Android devices into giving them their location and private data on the device. “You can access the user’s address book, chat history, location, etc., and it is completely ‘legal’.
He compared ToTok’s data collection to the “massive collection” of metadata by the National Security Agency (NSA), but to a greater degree.
According to the New York Times, the app was developed by Breej Holding. The app developer did not mention spy charges in a statement. He noted that the app was “temporarily unavailable” on Android and Apple markets due to “technical issues.” The statement said existing ToTok users would continue to enjoy their service. They would like to tell their new users that they would work with Google and Apple to solve that issue.
