Apple has taken down more than 250 apps from the App Store that were accessing and storing personal information, like Apple ID and device serial numbers, according to a report by SourceDNA.
The code analytics platform found hundreds of apps on the App Store that used private APIs to collect private user data, like email addresses and device identifiers. As a result, Apple has pulled 256 applications from the iTunes App Store. These 256 apps were mostly Chinese and were downloaded by a total of around 1 million users. According to SourceDNA’s research, developers of the Youmi advertising SDK had been using a variety of techniques and APIs to collect identifying personal information information on users.
Most of the developers are located in China. It said that this is the first time it has seen iOS apps successfully bypass the app review process. The analytics firm has found the affected apps using its new developer tool Searchlight. SourceDNA has recommend developers to stop using this SDK until this code is removed.
This is not the first time apps from the Apple Store are found vulnerable to attacks. Last month, the App Store was hit by major malware attack where several apps were infected.