he Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published the results of an investigation into the Android version of the Ring app which reportedly includes a plethora of trackers sending out customer data to third parties.
On Monday, the digital rights group said Ring for Android version 3.21.1 is “packed” with third-party trackers that collect customers’ personally identifiable information (PII) including names, private IP addresses, mobile network carriers, persistent identifiers (PIDs) — long-lasting references to digital objects — as well as sensor data.
According to the report, this information, which together establishes a solid picture of a device and its user, has been sent to four main analytics and marketing companies. The PII collected is sent to Branch, MixPanel, AppsFlyer, and Facebook.
“The danger in sending even small bits of information is that analytics and tracking companies are able to combine these bits together to form a unique picture of the user’s device,” the EFF says. “This cohesive whole represents a fingerprint that follows the user as they interact with other apps and use their device, in essence providing trackers the ability to spy on what a user is doing in their digital lives and when they are doing it.”
By Charlie Osborne | January 28, 2020