News
iPhone app used to grab users’ phone numbers
By Charles Starrett
Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Tuesday, September 29, 2009
News Category: Apps + Games
A number of European readers of the French-language site Mac4Ever are complaining of receiving unwanted calls after downloading and installing a specific iPhone application, suggesting the application is grabbing the users’ numbers via the app itself and using them to place the unsolicited calls. The article states that Mac4Ever successfully tested a line of code meant to retrieve an iPhone’s number, which can then be sent to remote databases or used in other nefarious ways without any notification to the user; it appears the behavior has been available since iPhone OS 2.1. The application in question, mogoRoad, is not available in the U.S. App Store, but we recommend European readers use caution when downloading this or any other apps from the company.
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1
Since you have to send an SMS to activate the free MogoRoad service, there’s no need for the app to send your phone number. I’ve checked with a network sniffer, and my phone number (or any data similar) is not sent.
But the *marketing* technique is not right.
Posted by Stephan on September 29, 2009 at 9:21 AM (PDT)
2
It’s false. You don’t need SMS to activate the service. I receive a call from the company without doing anything, except installing the Light version.
Posted by doudou on September 29, 2009 at 10:30 AM (PDT)