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AccuWeather iOS application sends location information to advertising partners

Last week, Will Strafach, an independent security researcher, claimed that the weather app on iOS AccuWeather sent location information to an organization called Reveal Mobile.

On its website, the company talks about the possibility of 'turning mobile location signals into high-value audiences' and 'generating more mobile revenue, with or without advertising' for customer.

AccuWeather sends information to Reveal Mobile every few hours

Strafach recognized AccuWeather gathering information and posting her searches on Twitter. He then performed more tests to verify.

'During the 36-hour test period, especially when AccWeather was in the background, my iPhone (on the desk in the office) sent information to Reveal Mobile 16 times, every few hours'.

According to Strafach, AccWeather collects the following information:

  1. Accurate GPS coordinates, along with speed and altitude.
  2. Name and BSSID of the WiFi network that the user is using.
  3. Device's Bluetooth connection status (on or off).

The data collected will interfere with the user

AccuWeather iOS application sends location information to advertising partners Picture 1
User location information is sent to Reveal Mobile by AccuWeather

GPS is the most wanted information but not always because users tend to turn it off. In that case, WiFi will be an alternative. Currently there are many services and online databases that can rename WiFi and SSID / BSSID networks into estimated geographical coordinates.

According to Reveal Mobile's website, it can be guessed that the company has outlined the daily schedule of each person, collected information about favorite stores, supermarkets, coffee shops . and used to guide advertising, of both AccWeather and other advertisers.

In February, Strafach also released a research report showing that 76 vulnerable iOS applications can block encrypted TLS data.

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AccuWeatherlocation informationpersonal data theftprivacy

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