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Meitu, a Chinese selfie editing app, has amassed billions in downloads since launching in 2008; it's been trendy in Asia for several years, and just recently began gaining popularity in the United States. The anime-style photo-editing tool, which is available through the Apple and Android app stores, features airbrushed, fairylike depictions of people.
But there's a serious privacy and security issue with the app, according to mobile security researchers who performed tests running the application, primarily on Android phones. The code instructs users' phones to send a large amount of data back to China, and possibly around the world.
That information that[sic] could potentially be used to spy on users and their communications.
Some of the application's permissions, presented before users download the app, include access to the calendar, camera, geolocation data, contacts, screen resolution, photos, the contents of the phone's USB storage, and other data.
The application also appears to be collecting the unique ID, the IMEI number, of users' phones, according to Greg Linares, a security researcher who examined the application. The IMEI is a 15-digit long serial number that can pinpoint the phone's country of origin and individual model.
(Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Tuesday January 24 2017, @11:47PM
Don't get me started on Google services.... I flashed a forked version of Android and also flashed the Google services image as well because I was told google maps and various location services wouldn't work properly without it. It is true, you need the google services to be installed for a lot of things like Uber. However, I then got tired of those services always running in the background even when no app was using them. I had to manually disable so many services just to keep Google from launching their background bullshit, now I'll suffer without being able to call Uber, taxi cabs still seem to work fine though :)
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 25 2017, @05:10PM
Google Services is Google's secret weapon to keep control of the important Apps on Android.
This started some years ago and I remember when I recognized it. Stop putting the cool features into the OS and start putting them into the Google Services.
Now a cloned Android doesn't look so attractive.
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.