Application Meitu appeared in 2008 and has gained popularity in their homeland of China and throughout Asia. In turn, Europe, USA and Russia have discovered Meitu just this week. Such viral popularity primarily stems from the fact that in January 2017 the app now feature Hand-drawn based on neural networks.
capabilities of the editor, the editor provided a second wave of fame, allow
to do makeup in the style of the heroine (or hero) anime, enlarge the eyes to the size of a saucer or whiten the skin just in one click.
Originally created as a Meitu the application from the desktop, but has subsequently been modified into a mobile selfie editor. The user base of the service, according to official website developer, has 456 million people in 26 countries who are uploading over 6 billion photos every month.
Not so nice
But as it turned out, Chinese beauty app is not so harmless. Security experts, writes CNET, found that for lenses, Meitu asks for too many rights in exchange for a pretty picture. In addition, inside the editor there was suspicious code.
Studied service professionals noted the logic that Meitu may need access to the camera for the photo, access the gallery to edit pictures and Internet connection to share the result on social networks.
But the application does not stop —
it requires access to phone records and geolocation, and wants to automatically load when you turn on the smartphone.
In the functions list you can also see that Meitu going to change the audio settings of the phone and sort the running applications.
in Addition, notes specialist in the field of information security Greg Linares, Meitu requests information about other applications and the international mobile subscriber identifier (IMSI). This applies to the version for Android devices.
At the same time, the expert on cyber security Jonathan Zgorski, which often deals with the study of mobile applications, found several suspicious items and iOS version.
According to him, Meitu can check whether the iPhone jailbreak and which provider provides the user.
this service does not give any explanation to the user why do we need access to this information, although Apple has requires from the developers is necessary to clarify such a request, if it is obvious and clear to the end user.
Zdzarski believes that these data can potentially be sold to companies engaged in targeted advertising. “Summing up: Meitu — is a fusion of various analytical and marketing tools disguised as something pretty to attract audiences,” written he tweeted.
There is nothing unusual in the fact that the applications collect data to sell to advertisers. Meitu, which is quietly amassing information even after restarting the phone or during sleep, makes one wonder about privacy and security.
in Addition to the name, sex and age of Internet companies may be interesting information such as ethnicity of the buyer, the square footage of his home, the computer’s operating system and others. So, Facebook uses about hundreds of such parameters in order to show targeted ads only to the individual audience.
privacy policy application there is a clause according to which Meitu may use the personal information as part of “compliance”.
Experts assume that the editor saves the information for the new Chinese law that requires manufacturers of applications to identify its users and to prevent the downloading of inappropriate content. So theoretically, personal data and a “cute” selfie millions of users can already be in the possession of the authorities of China.
the Portal Recode tried to contact the developer Meitu, Inc. for comment, but no reply received.
the Manager of group products ESET Russia Sergey Kuznetsov confirmed that software Meitu access to the call may give the developers the user’s phone number and operator.
“I Recommend this permit does not give” — said the expert.
Sergei noted that potentially dangerous permissions in photo editor are not available, but the user may face targeted advertising and mobile spam, if the developer will transfer personal information to third parties.
your own risk
If you are not much concerned about the safety of personal information, but I really want to see yourself in the image of “kawaii” character, it is worth noting that Meitu — is quite convenient and intuitive photo editor that has a wide functionality.
in Addition to selecting Hand-drawn, which “redraws” the photos are available to the user a few dozen filters like Instagram and the tool to enlarge the eyes and removes “bags” under them. Also, you can easily get rid of wrinkles and achieve a smooth skin texture. Meitu also offers several frames and stickers that can be pasted on the processed image.
the Creators Meitu promise to update the database of filters and effects daily. Currently, the app has captured the Internet, forcing users to watch their tapes “anime” friends.
However, the lens acting on a legal basis, clearly should not request location data or have the right to change the audio settings. Experts recommend to use alternative editors photos.
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