The UC Browser, a popular third party mobile browser on Android might be leaking your personal data, posing a huge privacy risk for users.
The browser’s parent company is owned by China’s Alibaba Group after their acquisition in 2014. UC Browser has over 100 million daily active users.
The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs conducted an investigation and found out that the mobile browser was sending user data un-encrypted to servers. This makes user data like phone numbers, device serial numbers, search history and geo-location data easily accessible to hackers around the world.
Alibaba claims that it has now fixed the problem with a version update that is available for download now.
The security flaw is a concern as intelligence agencies can easily access user data for electronic surveillance. The UC Browser is a popular app in India as well and the revelations have raised an alarm.
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