ToTok Is an Emirati Spying Tool
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The smartphone messaging app ToTok is actually an Emirati spying tool:
But the service, ToTok, is actually a spying tool, according to American officials familiar with a classified intelligence assessment and a New York Times investigation into the app and its developers. It is used by the government of the United Arab Emirates to try to track every conversation, movement, relationship, appointment, sound and image of those who install it on their phones.
ToTok, introduced only months ago, was downloaded millions of times from the Apple and Google app stores by users throughout the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. While the majority of its users are in the Emirates, ToTok surged to become one of the most downloaded social apps in the United States last week, according to app rankings and App Annie, a research firm.
Apple and Google have removed it from their app stores. If you have it on your phone, delete it now.
Tags: Apple, eavesdropping, Google, malware, phones, privacy, smartphones, spyware, surveillance, United Arab Emirates
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Text extracted automatically; images, tables and formatting may be missing. Original: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/12/totok_is_an_emi.html