DIGITAL LIFE

Attention to malicious applications: US intelligence company is monitoring

According to The Wall Street Journal, Anomaly Six LLC, a small company with links to the United States' defense and intelligence agencies, has created a tracking tool across multiple mobile apps. It is noted that the said company can extract location data from more than 500 mobile applications that are installed on hundreds of millions of smartphones worldwide.
The report says Anomaly Six was founded by two veterans of American intelligence. Although Anomaly Six officially works only with private companies, the source says it has been possible to establish a connection with US military and intelligence agencies.
The company also partners with mobile application developers, providing them with their own SDK, which is built into the software and allows the collection of location data from the device. It is not known which applications contain Anomaly Six's tracking tool, as the company does not disclose information about which mobile software developers it cooperates with.
The data is collected anonymously and sold not only to private companies, but also to government agencies. Each smartphone whose location data is collected is given an alphanumeric identifier that is not associated with the actual name of the device owner. Despite this, the data collected in this way can still be used to identify users and subsequently collect information about them. For example, most of the time, a device is idle at night when its owner is sleeping. Thus, it is possible to establish the user's address, and based on his movements, it is easy to obtain data on habits, workplace, applications used on the road, favorite restaurants, stores, etc.

AVnews