安卓App“最亮手电筒"被曝长期出售用户数据

新华网12月10日电 据美国科技博客Gizmodo报道，美国联邦交易委员会（FTC）近日披露，安卓app“最亮手电筒（Brightest Flashlight Free）”长期以来向第三方秘密出售用户数据。

尽管在打开该软件时会弹出“是否允许数据连接”的提示，并声称用户数据仅限于内部使用，但无论选择“允许”还是“拒绝”，该软件均会将用户数据泄露给第三方。这引起了不少用户对于隐私保护的担忧，而让人最难以接受的是即便用户选择了“拒绝”数据连接，“最亮手电筒”依旧会将用户信息出售。

不仅如此，“最亮手电筒”早在2011年就被曝向第三方出售用户信息，而现在在Google Play商店仍然可以下载到该app。

目前，美国联邦交易委员会已经勒令app开发商全面删除近年来收集到的所有用户信息。

译者：张免

百度新闻与新华网国际频道合作稿件，转载请注明出处。

Were you one of the 100 million Android users that downloaded the Brightest Flashlight Free app? Did you conscientiously click "no" when asked if you'd like to allow the app to track your location data? Well, too bad, suckers. Because not only has the FTC revealed that the popular, light-giving app was secretly selling data to third parties, but its "option" to refuse the data collection in the first place was one big, fat lie.

Upon opening the app, unsuspecting (and presumably unseeing) users would be prompted to either allow or deny local data tracking—data that would be used for strictly internal purposes, it assured. Internal here, of course, meaning the app and anyone else willing to cough up money for that sweet location data. While this in itself is still a major invasion of privacy, the worst part is that even if you decided against the data tracking, Brightest Flashlight Free was going to sell your data whether you liked it or not.

And this isn't a new development—the app's been collecting and selling Android user data since 2011. Plus, it's still available in the Google Play store, but if you're dead-set on downloading this particular flashlight app for whatever reason (danger is exciting), you hopefully needn't worry. The FTC has ordered the app's distributer, Goldshores Technologies, to delete all the personal information it's collected over the years. Of course, any companies that have purchased that data will still be privy to it. So maybe stick to candles next time.

(原标题：安卓App“最亮手电筒"被曝长期出售用户数据)