Research group says UC Browser, owned by Alibaba, found to leak data

Category > OTHERS || Published on : Friday, May 22, 2015 || Views: 1266 || Research group says UC Browser owned by Alibaba found to leak data UC Browser Alibaba Research group


A popular mobile web browser from a company that Alibaba Group Holding Ltd paid more than $1 billion for last year leaks sensitive user data and is a privacy risk, a Canadian technology research group said on Thursday.

Citizen Lab said Chinese and English-language versions of UC Browser, developed by UCWeb Inc, made easily available to third parties personally identifiable information like location, search details and mobile subscriber and device numbers.

The transmission of this information "represents a privacy risk for users because it allows anyone with access to the data traffic to identify users and their devices, and collect their private search data", it said in a report.

Alibaba spokesman Bob Christie said the problems were immediately fixed and customers notified of an update to the browser after Citizen Lab brought the issues to Alibaba's attention in April.

Read Full Story @ reuters