These and other apps are still available in the Play store, having been downloaded 1.4 billion times. The app has already been installed half a million times. I found that one app, Beauty Camera by Phila AppStore, simply went ahead and used my camera, without even asking for camera permission. Increase your online security and privacy by sending your data through an encrypted tunnel.ģ app developers are also apparently guilty of trying to hide their connection: they seem to be separate developers with separate apps, but we discovered that they are likely run by the same group in China.
Lyrebird Studio, the developer behind Beauty Makeup, Selfie Camera Effects, Photo Editor, was identified by Trend Micro for sending users pornographic content, redirecting them to phishing sites, and collecting their pictures. There’s also the app developer iJoysoft, whose apps are connected to malicious adware. Its developer, Meitu, was suspected of collecting user data in its Chinese servers, and then selling it.īut they’re not the only one. Take the #1 beauty camera app, BeautyPlus - Easy Photo Editor & Selfie Camera, with 300 million installs, which was identified as being either malware or spyware. When you download a beauty camera app, you’re probably expecting it to add a makeup or cartoon filter on your face for more interesting selfies, or just to clean up some lower-quality pictures you took.īut in the background, you’re not expecting these apps to scrape and sell your data, plague you with nonstop, malicious ads, redirect you to phishing websites, or even spy on you.īut that’s exactly what some of the top beauty camera apps have been found guilty of doing. Additional reporting by Rimantas Leonavičius.
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