What dangers can getcontact application and how to remove it - ForumDaily
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What dangers a Getcontact application can carry and how to remove it

How the service works Getcontact, Does it violate the law, and why in Kazakhstan the application has become Pootin.

Photo: depositphotos.com

In February, 2018, the application became popular in RuNet Getcontact, through which users can find out under what name they are recorded in the contact list with friends and acquaintances. Social network participants began to actively share screenshots, writes VC.ru

According to statistics Google Trendsfirst interest in Getcontact manifested in December 2017, and an active surge occurred at the beginning of February 2018. Getcontact It is popular among users of Armenia, Azerbaijan, countries of Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

At the time of publication of the material, the application is headed by the rating of free programs in the store App Store in Russia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

Getcontact first headed the rating of Russian App Store in the "utilities" section of February 8 2018. February 26 service ranked first overall ranking of the most downloaded free applications.

Changing the position of GetContact in the rating of the Russian App Store

One of the first mentions of the application GetContact on Twitter Dated 22 December 2017. The report says that the contacts of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev were loaded into the service.

Managing partner of the agency Tech PR Olga Budnik suggested that Getcontact works on the principle of generating random data: the application collects information on social networks (name, experience, mention in friends' records), creates combinations, substitutes emoticons and issues data.

However, among the possible names of the correspondent vc.ru a variant appeared that uses only a couple of acquaintances in personal communication. Over February 28 the number of titles increased 2,5 times compared to February 27.

Getcontact allows you to find out who called the user if his number is not in the address book. The main purpose of the service, according to the developers, is to calculate calls from spammers.

The company behind the service GetContact LLP was registered in London at the end of November 2017. However, the application site states that it has been operating since 2015. The first version of the service for iOS devices has been uploaded to App Store in January 2016 of the year.

The founders of the company are Turkish citizens Mustafa Sevinch (Example: Mustafa Sevinç) and Burak Selahattin Saglyk (Burak Selahattin Sağlik). Editorial vc.ru could not detect them in Facebook or LinkedIn.

The issue of personal data security

For work Getcontact It is necessary to provide access to your own list of contacts that are uploaded to the company's server. Thus, the user "gives" the company not only his number, but also all contacts (numbers and names) that are stored in his phone. At the same time, it is only possible to find a particular subscriber through the application search form, only knowing its number.

 

According to the rules of use, the service can use the data for their own purposes and share information with third parties.

In particular, the application can send information via email, SMS or calls for the promotion of goods and services. It is noted that such actions must take place within the framework of the legislation.

Get Contact may share data received from users through third-party applications and receive information from third-party applications in order to maintain and expand its services.

This information may include contacts, social network accounts, photos, email addresses, IP addresses, and call history.

On the site of the service there is a page with the help of which, according to the company, you can withdraw your own number from the database. In the event that a user has installed the application and has passed the registration procedure, he must first get rid of his account in Getcontact. This can be done in the service settings in the item “About Get Contact».

24 hours are set aside for deletion from the database, according to the company's website. It is not known whether the number is really erased after this procedure, and whether it guarantees that after loading the contact book of the next user, the data will not get into the database again. Getcontact.

Chief Analyst of the Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC) Karen Ghazaryan, in a conversation with vc.ru, noted that Getcontact - not the first application with similar functions, and was surprised why this particular service caused such a stir.

In Roskomnadzor vc.ru reported that the Office did not receive complaints on the application. February 28 supervisory service warned users about potential hazards.

In particular, the fact that contacts can be recorded credit card data, passwords from personal accounts and other important information.

“Unscrupulous developers of these applications can then sell the collected database to anyone: collectors, scammers (“Son, I’m in trouble, send me 100 rubles urgently”), annoying financial brokers (“Hello, haven’t you thought about where to invest your funds with cards 1657?") and others."

According to RBC, Roskomnadzor is going to check Getcontact on compliance with the law on personal data.

The application is harmless if there is not a single entry in the address book, and the user, when registering with Getcontact will indicate an arbitrary name, says Viktor Chebyshev, an anti-virus expert at Kaspersky Lab, vc.ru.

Fate of GetContact and Pootin in Kazakhstan

However, in early February, the authorities of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have already blocked Getcontact due to violation of the procedure for the dissemination of personal data.

In mid-February, the company Codebusters from Kazakhstan presented its own application called GetContact_. Within a few days, it reached the first line of the rating of the most downloaded iOS apps in Kazakhstan and 3,5 million contacts. February 21 base has already exceeded 10 million numbers. February 28 application hit the second line App Store in Russia.

In contrast to the original, the Kazakh counterpart provided users with the opportunity to delete names they hated free of charge after viewing an advertising video. Codebusters earns on GetContact_ using ad serving over the web AdMob. Users can hide ads for $ 5. At the same time, they get three attempts to delete the record without watching the video.

General Director of an IT company Codebusters Murat Alikhanov told vc.ru that the purpose of creating GetContact_ it was recreating the conditions of viral growth, which the food team lacked.

Primary activity Codebusters - development and project management for large companies.

Alikhanov predicts that, according to the most conservative estimates, in a month the company will be able to earn $10 a day.

February 26 GetContact_ also turned out to be blocked on the territory of Kazakhstan. Alikhanov said that the company is not going to take any steps to remedy this situation.

“In third place in Kazakhstan AppStore unexpectedly settled down VPN Unlimited. We have created a whole market here, ”says the head Codebusters.

At the same time, Alikhanov notes that GetContact_ does not violate the law, as it does not provide access to confidential information, and users are not at risk. “You can find a person only if you know his number. We do not transfer phone numbers to third parties and do not abuse them at all. We don’t even use mailings, ”he says.

February 22 Codebusters received a letter from london Getcontact, whose lawyers accused the creators of the Kazakh version of illegally using the name of their product.

February 28 creators GetContact_ renamed your service to Pootin. At the same time, the creators of the original Getcontact, but for the purpose of possible cooperation, said Alikhanov.

Additionally, Codbusters is going to raise funds to promote the service and enter the market of the BRICS countries. Possible investors, according to Alikhanov, can be bloggers and specialists "with a deep degree of expertise." The company has already received several applications and is about to close their reception on March 11.

Other analogues

Similar to Getcontact models work, for example, applications Numbuster and truecaller.

In 2014, Russian developers released an application Numbuster which, according to their idea, allowed to weed out unwanted calls - for example, from collectors and spammers. Project Manager - Yevgeny Gnutikov.

 

Users of the application create a database of contacts, tagging those or other unscrupulous subscribers. Numbuster allows you to find out who is calling from an unfamiliar number (if the contact is in the service database), block unwanted SMS and calls, inform other users about fraudsters and find out under what name other people are recorded in the phone book.

According to the company, the application installed 1,5 million users.

In 2017, developers Numbuster complained about the removal of the application from Google Play by trebuwan Truecaller.

Numbuster spread through Google Play application "Who called? Whose phone number "(Who calls? True caller name id in the English version). Users were available paid and free versions. According to the company, at the end of April 2017, their application was blocked in all countries without the possibility of adjusting the description.

Now the application is again available in Google Play, as well as in App Store and Microsoft Store.

Swedish company True Software Scandinavia AB released an application Truecaller in September 2009 of the year. It is available for iOS and Android-devices

The service marks the numbers from which incoming calls or SMS come. The application also allows you to create a backup copy of the phone book or find the names of a person by his number.

 

In 2017 year Truecaller identified 33 billion unknown subscribers and blocked 10 billion calls from spammers. According to the company, the service is used by more than 100 million people worldwide.

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