Buzz
Sarahah is one of the latest apps for iPhone and Android devices that has been released in the past few weeks. The app allows users to send and receive anonymous messages from other Sarahah users.
Sarahah App: Covertly Stealing User Contacts
However, according to cybersecurity analyst Zachary Julian, Sarahah app silently steals users' contact lists and uploads the data to the company's servers.
According to The Intercept, after Android or iOS users download and install Sarahah for the first time, the app immediately collects and uploads all phone numbers and email addresses from the user's contact list.
Although apps often provide features that work with contact addresses requiring access to users' contact lists is common, however, Sarahah app lacks this feature.
However, the creator of Sarahah, Zain al-Abidin Tawfiq, explains that the app uploads users' contact addresses to the company's servers to provide information for a new feature that will be implemented in the future.
Tawfiq mentioned that users' contact lists are uploaded to provide and develop the 'find friends' feature which was planned beforehand but 'delayed' due to technical issues and inadvertently this feature has not been removed from the current version of Sarahah.
Additionally, Tawfiq also promised users that 'data requests will be removed in the next update' and Sarahah's servers 'currently do not store users' contact lists', of course, no one can verify this.
Sarahah app silently steals users' contact lists
Sarahah has sparked a 'fever' on the Internet in the past few weeks. Currently, there are about 18 million iOS and Android users who have downloaded and used the app.
If you're concerned about Sarahah app stealing your contact list, you can set up to prevent this app from accessing your device's contacts.
On newer Android operating system versions (since Android 6.0 Marshmallow), allowing users to grant permissions to Android apps, users can restrict apps without relevant features from accessing contacts or other information.
To do this, go to Settings =>Personal =>Apps, in the App Configuration section, open App Permissions and restrict permissions for the app you want.
The Sarahah app silently stealing users' contact lists has raised concerns about user data security. Not only Sarahah, but many other services and apps are secretly taking user data. Readers, always stay tuned to Mytour's articles to update the best information security methods to prevent this from happening.
If you still want to experience this HOT app, you can download Sarahah here:
- For Android devices: Sarahah for Android
- For iOS devices: Sarahah for iPhone
To use Sarahah, similar to many other apps, you need to create a Sarahah account, register a new Sarahah account to send secret messages, the steps to create a Sarahah account have been carefully guided by Mytour in a recent tutorial article, you can refer to and create your own Sarahah account.
After you have finished creating your Sarahah account, you can send anonymous messages using Sarahah on both your computer and your phone. If using a computer, follow how to send anonymous messages with Sarahah here, or if using a smartphone, follow how to use Sarahah, send anonymous messages on iPhone, Android.
