Tag Archive for: removes

Nothing removes iMessage Android app from Play Store amid security concerns

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Nothing Chats was an app intended to give Android users a method of messaging others through Apple’s iMessage app, but the method in which they used to work around Apple’s security raised some eyebrows. And, just a short time after launch, Nothing removed their app from the Play Store to “fix several bugs”.

With how large of a company Apple is, it’s no surprise that they’ve got an iron grip when it comes to their exclusive hardware and software capabilities.

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One of the biggest barriers between Android and Apple users is the prominence of iMessage, the main messaging app for iPhones. The Apple-exclusive messaging app has some concessions when it comes to messaging non-Apple phones like making Android users’ media lower quality when sent via messages.

So, Nothing sought to create a method of bypassing Apple’s hold in the area that’d give Android users access it. However, the way in which they went about getting around Apple’s identification raised some security concerns. Though Nothing has yet to address those concerns, they have removed the app from the store a short time after launch.

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Nothing pulls iMessage app amid ongoing security concerns

MKBHD explained these security concerns in detail, but the gist is that Nothing and Sunbird’s workaround involves Sunbird storing data on a Firebase server. As a result, the data could be up for grabs if someone is able to get ahold of the token to log into the Mac connected to the server that makes the app’s workaround function.

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Users have discovered a short line of code that can be used to download user data en masse from the Firebase server managing all…

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AT&T Removes HBO Max Bundle From Its Unlimited Elite Plan

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AT&T’s top-tier Unlimited phone plan no longer comes with a free subscription to HBO Max. The wireless giant has dropped the SVOD (subscription video-on-demand) service from the $85 per month Unlimited Elite plan. Perhaps the plan itself doesn’t exist anymore for new AT&T customers as well as existing customers looking to upgrade to the top-tier plan. It has been replaced with the Unlimited Premium which costs the same but doesn’t include HBO Max. Existing Unlimited Elite subscribers will continue to get access to the streaming service for no additional charge, though.

“HBO Max is a great service, but we constantly experiment with the features we offer our customers to give them the best value,” AT&T said in a statement to NextTV. The company didn’t provide additional details regarding this move. But the decision doesn’t come as a surprise as the wireless giant no longer owns HBO Max. The SVOD service was part of its WarnerMedia division that spun off and merged with Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery. The deal closed this April and AT&T has expectedly removed HBO Max as a free add-on with its top-tier wireless plan.

Instead of HBO Max, AT&T is offering additional high-speed hotspot data with the Unlimited Premium plan. Subscribers now get 50GB of hotspot data, 10GB more than what the now-discontinued Unlimited Elite plan offered. The $85 a month plan, which comes down to $45 per line per month if you get five or more lines, gives you unlimited talk, text, and 5G internet in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Other perks include free roaming in 19 Latin American countries, 4K UHD streaming, mobile security, unlimited texting to over 200 countries, and six months of Stadia Pro subscription.

The ad-supported HBO Max is still available to Cricket Wireless customers

As said earlier, AT&T removing HBO Max from its top-tier unlimited plan is no surprise. But the company’s prepaid brand Cricket Wireless still offers an ad-supported version of the streaming service to its customers. Subscribers of its $60 per month Unlimited plan get the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned SVOD service at no additional cost.

This Cricket Wireless plan comes down to just $32 per line per month for…

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ExpressVPN removes India-based servers, says Centre’s rules ‘overreaching’

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Virtual private network service provider ExpressVPN announced removal of all its India-based VPN servers, rejecting the directions given by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and calling them “overreaching.”


In a statement, ExpressVPN said, “With a recent data law introduced in India requiring all VPN providers to store user information for at least five years, ExpressVPN has made the very straightforward decision to remove our India-based VPN servers.”


“Rest assured, our users will still be able to connect to VPN servers that will give them Indian IP addresses and allow them to access the internet as if they were located in India. These ‘virtual’ India servers will instead be physically located in Singapore and the UK,” the company added.


Calling the new rules “incompatible with the purpose of VPNs,” the company said, “ExpressVPN refuses to participate in the Indian government’s attempts to limit internet freedom.”


“As a company focused on protecting privacy and freedom of expression online, we will continue to fight to keep users connected to the open and free internet with privacy and security, no matter where they are located.”


CERT-In’s new directions, issued in late April, said that service providers will have to store the names, IP addresses of its users, along with usage patterns and other data.


The government’s new rule met widespread criticism from most major VPN firms. Netherland-based Surfshank also said that it was exploring the possibility of legally challenging directions.


Reacting to the criticism, MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that if VPN service providers do not want to follow the new directions, they are “free to leave India.”


In late May, Chandrasekhar said that the new directions would have no impact on business viability.


“There can be both good and bad work happening through the Internet. Safe and trusted platform we have come up with cyber security regulations. The only restriction is that VPN is misused for criminal activities, VPN operators will have to cooperate and produce the data of the person committing the…

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Google removes Android apps with spyware linked to US security agencies

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Google LLC has reportedly removed dozens of apps from the Google Play Store after researchers found they included software for collecting user data for a company with alleged ties to U.S. security agencies.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that spy software found in the apps came from Panamanian company Measurement Systems S. de R.L. The company is said to be linked through corporate records and web registrations to a Virginia defense contractor who does cybersecurity intelligence, network-defense and intelligence-intercept work for U.S. national-security agencies.

The Journal claims that Management Systems paid developers worldwide to incorporate its software development kit into its apps. The SDK allowed the company to collect data from users of those apps. The company told developers that it specifically wanted data from the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe and Asia.

The code was found inside several Muslim prayer apps that have been downloaded more than 10 million times, a highway-speed-trap detection app and a number of other popular consumer apps. In total, it’s estimated that apps with the spy software were installed on at least 60 million Android devices.

Serge Egelman, a researcher at the International Computer Science Institute and the University of California at Berkeley and Joel Reardon of the University of Calgary discovered the code and informed Google, federal privacy regulators and the Journal.

The two researchers run a mobile app security company called AppCensus. On the AppCensus blog, Reardon goes into more detail.

The software, described by Reardon as “Coulus Coelib,” receives various forms of data from users running apps with the code included. The software collects phone numbers, email addresses, GPS data and details such as phone identification markers.

The Measurement Systems SDK can also collect information stored in a phone’s clipboard, such as passwords, whenever the cut-and-paste feature is used and also has the ability to scan some parts of the phone’s system, including files stored in the WhatsApp downloads folder. WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world.

“A database mapping someone’s actual email…

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