Android apps use ultrasound to get user privacy

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Beijing time May 8 Morning News, a recent paper published by researchers at the Brunswick Institute of Technology in Germany shows that more than 200 apps in the Google App Store use ultrasound that the human ear cannot hear to track users. These apps have been downloaded millions of times and may pose a threat to users ' privacy.

Nearly 1 years ago, app developer SilverPush used the technology in television commercials to track mobile phone users. After being exposed, the company promised to stop using the technology. However, new research shows that the technology is being used more widely.

The paper shows that as of this January, a total of 234 Android applications integrated the SilverPush publicly available software Development Kit (SDK). In April 2015, there were only 5 applications.

Marketers can implant ultrasound in TV commercials or other types of audio content, and these applications can receive ultrasound. According to Google's official data, 5 of these apps are downloaded 2.25 million to 11.1 million times. These applications do not disclose this tracking behavior in the privacy policy.

Erwin Quiring, one of the researchers, said: "The SilverPush case shows that it is easy to use this technology to spy on users." El Venquilin In this way, they can accurately track the user's TV habits. In our paper, we point out 3 risks that this technology will take in the future, such as tracking user locations, using devices, and even allowing Tor users to be anonymous. ”

SilverPush founder Sitshora (Hitesh Chawla) said he was surprised by the findings. His own company abandoned the ad-tracking business as early as the end of 2015.

"We respect user privacy and do not want to build our business base in the event of a dispute over privacy protection," he said. Even during business, our SDK is used for up to 10 to 12 applications. Therefore, we cannot exist in 234 applications. Every time a new phone uses our SDK to activate, our server will receive a message. We haven't received any activation messages in the last 6 months. ”

However, the researchers gave different data. The phones that install these apps can silently listen to the ultrasound, and the user is unaware of it. Even if this function is not used, the increase in the number of such applications indicates that the recent application of this kind of behavior is more and more.

Google's privacy policy for all apps requires developers to "disclose how the app collects, uses, and shares user data, including what third parties are sharing it with," one person said.

The frequency of this ultrasonic wave is 18KHz to 20KHz, the human ear cannot hear, but can be sensed by the handset microphone. This paper was published in the second IEEE European Symposium on Information Security and privacy.

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Android apps use ultrasound to get user privacy