Plenty of Fish Fixes Bug That Leaked User Locations
Plenty of Fish concluded its 2019 by introducing a new security update to stop the app from leaking private user data.
The fix came after an independent app analyst discovered the flaw which made sensitive information, such as names and ZIP codes, accessible even if the user had requested privacy.
Although the data was scrambled and not immediately shown to other singles on the app, a researcher from ‘The App Analyst’ was able to uncover it using free traffic analysing tools.
This sort of breach is particularly dangerous for members of the LGBTQ community, as having their location leaked online could lead to targeting or physically harassment.
Plenty of Fish were made aware of the issues on 20th October and set about developing a fix. As of 18th December, the repairs were rolled out to all 150 million users and there appears to be no more concerns.
A representative from the online dating company declined to comment when contacted by TechCrunch.
In December, more than 267 million Facebook members had their names, user IDs and phone numbers listed on a publicly accessible spreadsheet. The information was believed to be available for almost two weeks.
Jewish dating platform JCrush had its entire database of 200,000 singles exposed six months ago. Luckily, it was secured almost immediately, before any malicious attacks had taken place.
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