Many popular apps have been involved in a massive data breach, revealing the precise locations of millions of iPhones. These applications are affected.
Huge data breach
Do you use apps like Flightradar, The Sims, Tinder, Candy Crush or Subway Surfers? Then there is a good chance that the precise location of your iPhone has been shared in a huge data breach. Last week, a hacker claimed to have access to Gravy Analytics data. This is the company that collects user data for popular apps. This gives Gravy Analytics access to the data of millions of iPhone and Android users.
Now it has been confirmed that this data is in the hands of malicious parties, as they have started sharing location data of millions of users. The data breach reveals the most visited locations of millions of iPhones and Android devices. These are places such as the address of your home, work and much more. Popular apps track this information to personalize ads.
This way you prevent tracking
Gravy Analytics collects the location data of iPhone and Android users through advertisements. Companies behind these advertisements have paid money for this so that they receive information about the IP address and location of a device. This data is used to determine which advertisements are shown in apps such as Candy Crush or Subway Surfers. The big problem: Gravy Analytics never anonymized the data.
This means that the IP address and location of your iPhone have been shared, and it is even visible who the information belongs to. This also includes accurate location determination, which shows you where your iPhone is located. These are often places such as your home or work address, which have now been leaked by malicious parties. Do you want to prevent your iPhone from being involved in such a data breach in the future? Then turn off the following function:
- Open ‘Settings’ on your iPhone;
- Go to ‘Privacy and security’;
- Tap ‘Tracking’;
- Turn off the switch behind ‘Allow tracking requests from apps’.
These apps were affected by a data breach
Do you want to know whether your iPhone was affected by the massive data breach? You can also see this under ‘Privacy and security > Tracking’. Is the switch behind ‘Allow tracking requests from apps’ already turned off? Then the precise location of your iPhone is not shared with companies such as Gravy Analytics. Apple introduced this feature to ensure the privacy of your iPhone. With Tracking disabled, ads are not allowed to collect specific data from your iPhone.
If ‘Tracking’ is enabled on your iPhone, there is a good chance that your device is involved in the massive data breach. A list has now been shared with all apps whose data has been leaked. These are important and popular applications such as Tumblr, Yahoo, Microsoft 365 and MyFitnessPal. Data has also been shared from a number of VPN apps and applications to track pregnancies. Would you like to see the full overview? View here which apps were affected by the data breach!
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