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App to monitor children is leaking thousands of data | Security

The TeenSafe child and adolescent monitoring application, available for Android and iPhone (iOS), was the target of a data leak from parents and children. Tens of thousands of accounts have been exposed, according to the specialized portal ZDNET. He claims that many children's email accounts and passwords related to Apple ID are among the sensitive content.

The parental control program regularly sends parents text messages exchanged by their children, their location, reports of outgoing calls, web browsing history and which applications they have installed. To do this, TeenSafe needs to store and keep track of various data on teenagers' cell phones, including Apple account passwords.

Parental control application leaked from children's Apple ID Photo: Carolina Ochsendorf / dnetcParental control application leaked from children's Apple ID Photo: Carolina Ochsendorf / dnetc

Parental control application leaked from children's Apple ID Photo: Carolina Ochsendorf / dnetc

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British security researcher Robert Wiggins found the problem. According to him, the leak occurred after the company hosted the information on Amazon's cloud computers, but without any protection, allowing the material to be accessed by anyone. The records did not contain photos, messages or GPS locations of parents and children.

Using the data leaked by the application itself, ZDNET contacted some users through Apple Messages (also called iMessage) to confirm their passwords. Several parents of children using the app responded to the portal confirming that those were their passwords and emails, or that they had been exchanged recently about a month earlier.

Application promises full control of children to parents Photo: Divulgao / TeenSafeApplication promises full control of children to parents Photo: Divulgao / TeenSafe

Application promises full control of children to parents Photo: Divulgao / TeenSafe

After ZDNET alerted the company, a TeenSafe spokesman confirmed the failure and said the problem was already being addressed. "We took steps to close one of our servers to the public and started to alert customers that they could be impacted," said the employee. Both servers have already been disconnected and the vehicle does not say whether Android user data has also been affected by the leak.

TeenSafe claims to have about a million active parents and is not available in Portuguese. The application costs, on average, US $ 14.95 in the United States, about R $ 54 in the current quote.