[HIB]Android app Tapsnake, secretly uploads GPS data

Researchers from anti-virus provider Symantec have outted a gaming application in Google's Android Market that tracks users' whereabouts so they can be secretly monitored in real-time. The free app is known as Tapsnake, which bills itself as an Android variation of a video game that has been around for three decades. What the description doesn't say is that every 15 minutes, the app uploads the user's GPS coordinates to a server that can be monitored by people running a separate $4.99 app known as GPS Spy, which is made by the same developer shop. “GPS Spy then downloads the data and uses this service to conveniently display it as location points in Google Maps,” the Symantec advisory warns. “This can give a pretty startling run-down of where someone carrying the phone has been.” Tapsnake has been downloaded from 1,000 to 5,000 times, while GPS Spy has 100 to 500 downloads.

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