Android operating system is filled with thousands of free apps but when it comes to sharing private user data, it’s best to not believe free apps.
Ai.type one of the popular keyboard apps has lost more than 31 million private user data.
When a user downloads a third party app, especially when it is a keyboard they don’t think twice and start immediately typing their content. In most scenarios, you would have entered your username, passwords of various bank accounts, social media account, contact number, address and so on. Everything is saved in the servers so as to provide instant predictions and help the user but when they get hacked by a random user, things go out of control.
The developers of ai.type keyboard used in Android and iOS used an unprotected database setup which may have been compromised leading to massive data getting leaked to random hackers from any location. It doesn’t require any password and the necessity to collect certain amount of information led to this situation.
Being a keyboard app, ai.type had to collect some sensitive and private information including phone number, full name of the owner, their cellular network, IMEI number, phone model, IMEI number, social media profiles, address and everything else that pertains to the individual. As part of this insecure database setup, the third-party criminals may have everything they need to know about a user especially those who have used the app for very long and 30 million is a huge number to start off with.
According to the report submitted by the researchers, over 577GB of data has been leaked but the CEO of the app confirms that no such leak has happened so far. Speaking to one of the popular television channels, Eitan Fitusi clarified that the number of users who may have got compromised is being boosted to exponential numbers and too much data was never collected to be stored in the database in the first place.
Only users who clicked on ads will share more details about themselves whereas free users will be able to use the app without any consequences. A contrasting report from security expert Mark James claimed that they were shocked by the sheer number of private info collected by the ai.type app on Android, iOS devices that could cause so much harm. It’s better to go for a paid and reputed company’s app than free apps that often lead to more trouble than favor.