David Trlica Analytics company Sensor Tower secretly collected data from iOS and Android users. Buzzfeed News reported that the company used VPN and AdBlock applications to do this, which required the installation of a root certificate in Safari.
The report states that as of 2015, Sensor Tower owned at least 20 apps for iOS and Android. In total, more than 35 million people have downloaded these apps. One of them, Adblock Focus, was until recently available in the AppStore, LunaVPN is still available at the time of writing. An Apple spokesperson confirmed that many Sensor Tower apps have already been removed from the AppStore for violating terms. However, the investigation is still ongoing and it is expected that LunaVPN and possibly other applications that are discovered will suffer the same fate.
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Jaromir Miko Interestingly, not a single app was directly associated with Sensor Tower. Instead, they were released under other company names. The connection to Sensor Tower was only discovered by the editors of Buzzfeed News, according to which the apps contained code from developers who work for Sensor Tower.
Randy Nelson, a representative of Sensor Tower, said that the vast majority of apps are either not working or will be discontinued soon. Of course, he did not admit that the applications do not work due to removal from the AppStore and Google Play. At the same time, he denied accusations of collecting user data.
However, the problem is that the application required the installation of a root certificate, with which the company could access the data passing through the device. Apple normally does not allow third parties to install. However, Sensor Tower got around this by installing through the Safari browser. For example, in the case of LunaVPN, users were told that if they installed the add-on on their phone, they would get rid of YouTube ads. And that was subsequently fulfilled, but it also started the installation of the root certificate.
I was very happy with this app, but then I formatted my iPhone and it wouldn't download anymore. It says that the application is not available in my country or region. I tried changing the country in the settings but to no avail.