Google will pay security researchers who find that Android apps and Chrome extensions are abusing user data – TechCrunch



[ad_1]

Google said he would pay security researchers who find "verifiable and unambiguous evidence" of data abuse using its platforms.

This is part of the company's efforts to catch those who misuse user data collected via Android apps or Chrome extensions – and avoid its own version of a scandal like Cambridge Analytica, which has seen millions Facebook profiles scraped and used to identify undecided voters in the United States. presidential election in 2016.

According to Google, anyone who identifies "situations in which user data is used or sold unexpectedly, or reused illegitimately without the consent of the user" is eligible for its bug for abuse bug. extended data.

"If an abuse of data is linked to a Chrome app or extension, that app or extension will be removed from Google Play or the Google Chrome Web Store," says a blog. "In the event that an application developer abuses access to restricted Gmail scopes, their API access would be removed."

Google said it was not yet providing a rewards table, but that a single report of misuse of data could generate $ 50,000 in bonuses.

The DataSpii scandal, which has seen browser extensions erase and share data from millions of users, makes the luster of increased wealth. These Chrome extensions have loaded web addresses and web page titles from each site visited by a user, exposing sensitive data such as tax returns, patient data, and travel itineraries.

Google has been forced to intervene and suspend the offending Chrome extensions.

Instagram has recently expanded its own bugs to include misused user data following a series of data-related incidents.

[ad_2]

Source link