Travel apps being used on Apple iPhones are reported to be faultily engaging in the practice of taking a screenshot of iPhone screens without the knowledge or consent of the respective users says research conducted by TechCrunch.
Thus, the recent study findings will definitely send an alert to the Apple Inc authorities who otherwise argue with the world that their devices never compromise when it comes to user’s data security.
Researchers from TechCrunch say that all popular airlines, hotel, and retail apps use analytics software supplied by ‘Glassbox’ to record every action which is being taken up on the app. At the same time, the snooping software is also reported to be taking snapshots of the screen from time to time.
Even worse is that the apps like Air Canada and other travel sites also pressurize their users in disclosing sensitive info such as passport numbers, credit card details and other financial info along with the DOB.
What’s more interesting in this whole snooping story is that none of the apps mention in their privacy policies that they are using Glassbox’s technology to keep an eye on the activity of their users.
Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, Expedia, Hotels.com, Abercrombie & Fitch, Trivago are some of the apps disclosed by TechCrunch to be snooping on iPhone and Android OS users.
Note- Air Canada released an official statement in August 2018 that its mobile app was targeted by hackers to access info of more than 20K users and their profile data which includes passport numbers and other critical details.
Apple is yet to react on the issue while Google stated that it will review the security status of the listed apps and will block them from its ‘Play store’ if necessary.
