How’s that for timing. Just as Congress passes a resolution to roll back privacy regulations, Verizon announces a new bloatware app designed to hoover up your data for targeted advertising. As companies look to take advantage of their new found freedom, this is likely to be only the first of many apps created by carriers and ISPs to spy on their users.
According to TechCrunch, the app is named AppFlash, and is designed to be a mobile search hub that will live a swipe to the left away from your home screen. Verizon imagines customers will use it to search for everything from restaurants to music to mobile apps, but it seems its primary function is going to be collecting user data.
A privacy policy for AppFlash says it will collect information customers’ mobile number, the device they’re using, and the apps they have installed. With users’ permission, it’ll also monitor their location and their contacts. All this will be shared with “the Verizon family of companies” to “help provide more relevant advertising.” That family of companies includes AOL and Yahoo, companies Verizon bought to get its hands on their ad tech. And as Verizon had indicated in the past, it wants to share more of its customers’ data with the firms.
How intrusive will this new mobile targeting be? Well, as the EFF points out, knowing the apps you have installed can deliver some very personal information to advertisers. Downloaded a fertility tracker? Get ready for some advertising for baby products. How about a meditation app? Well, you’re probably in need of some anxiety medication.
Screenshots of Verizon’s AppFlash, which is based on technology by startup Evie.
We have questions for Verizon regarding AppFlash (most importantly: can you uninstall it?) but when it comes to ISPs and mobile carriers collecting customers’ information, this app, unfortunately, is not entirely. In 2011, for example, there was the Carrier IQ controversy, in which a number of carriers admitting to installing software on customers’ phones that tracked data including browser history and app usage.