According to a Financial Times article, third-party applications may have utilized a Yandex developer tool that can acquire data from iOS users, as privacy researcher Zach Edwards explains in his study.
Yandex’s API AppMetrica is a software development kit that provides developers with a simple method of collecting analytics data for their app quickly and affordably. Developers who utilize this technology, on the other hand, may be unintentionally providing Yandex with access to their users’ data.
Yandex’s development software kit is said to be utilized by 52,000 applications, including messaging apps, location-sharing tools, and VPN programs.
Edwards found that the code included in Yandex applications collects and sends user data to Russian servers.
“The Appmetrica SDK claims to provide appropriate services, all while phoning home to Moscow with deeply invasive metadata details that can be used to track people across websites and apps,†said Edwards.
The Russian government has the legal authority to access the data in accordance with their Privacy, Data Protection, and Cybersecurity Law.
Edwards labeled Yandex as part of the Putin-Russia propaganda machine in a Twitter post.
Yandex emphasized that their software collects device, network, and IP address information and sends it to servers in both Russia and Finland, but that the data is anonymised, making it ‘very difficult to identify users’ amid the trove of information.
Concerned users may use the Exodus Search Engine and Analysis tool to find out if the app they installed has AppMetrica or other known trackers embedded in them. Always take care when installing apps and never trust them outright!
