Popular Chinese weather app has been accused of collecting huge amounts of sensitive info from its users without their consent. “Weather Forecast- World Weather Accurate Radar” is the android application in question and is reported to have a download count of nearly 10 million with over 46,000 reviews on Google Play Store.
According to a highly placed source from Wall Street Journal, the app is caught collecting sensitive user info which includes geographic location, email addresses, IMEI number of a device on which the app is working and the active phone number.
However, the app developer TCL Communication Technology Holdings has squashed all the rumors as mere fabricated speculations and said that the info is being collected in order to prevent fake downloads and offer better weather reporting services to users based on their respective locations, their devices, and OS versions.
UpStream Services, a London based security firm is said to have provided the info to the news resource and added in its statement that the app was also found subscribing to the virtual reality services without the consent of more than 100,000 Alcatel Smartphone users.
UpStream claims that the users affected by the app’s espionage kind of activities were those mostly from Brazil, Malaysia, Nigeria and some parts of Australia.
After learning the intensity of the issue, TCL is said to have updated its Weather App in the Google Play Store with the latest restrictions that stop automated user subscription to services. However, the Chinese app developer appears to be still collecting sensitive user data.
Security experts warn that app users should keep an eye on what data their mobile phone apps are accessing on their device and delete the suspicious ones on an immediate note.
