Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Report: Popular Chat App a Spy Tool for Mideast Government
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
December 23, 2019

Share

NEW YORK — A chat app that quickly became popular in the United Arab Emirates for communicating with friends and family is actually a spying tool used by the government to track its users, according to a newspaper report.

The government uses ToTok to track conversations, locations, images and other data of those who install the app on their phones, The New York Times reported, citing U.S. officials familiar with a classified intelligence assessment and the newspaper’s own investigation.
The government uses ToTok to track conversations, locations, images and other data of those who install the app on their phones, The New York Times reported, citing U.S. officials familiar with a classified intelligence assessment and the newspaper’s own investigation.
The Emirates has long blocked Apple’s FaceTime, Facebook’s WhatsApp and other calling apps. Emirati media has been playing up ToTok as an alternative for expatriates living in the country to call home to their loved ones for free.
The Times says ToTok is a few months old and has been downloaded millions of times, with most of its users in the Emirates, a U.S.-allied federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula.
Government surveillance in the Emirates is prolific, and the Emirates long has been suspected of using so-called “zero day” exploits to target human rights activists and others.
Zero days exploits can be expensive to obtain on the black market because they represent software vulnerabilities for which fixes have yet to be developed.
The Times described ToTok as a way to give the government free access to personal information, as millions of users are willingly downloading and installing the app on their phones and blindly giving permission to enable features.

ToTok ‘Does What It Claims to Do’ as a Communications App

As with many apps, ToTok requests location information, purportedly to provide accurate weather forecasts, according to the Times. It also requests access to a phone’s contacts, supposedly to help users connect with friends. The app also has access to microphones, cameras, calendar and other data.

A security expert who said he analyzed the app for the Times, Patrick Wardle, said that ToTok “does what it claims to do” as a communications app, which is the “genius” of the app if it is being used as a spy tool.
A security expert who said he analyzed the app for the Times, Patrick Wardle, said that ToTok “does what it claims to do” as a communications app, which is the “genius” of the app if it is being used as a spy tool. “No exploits, no backdoors, no malware,” he wrote in a blog post. The app is able to gain insights on users through common functions.
In a blog post Monday, ToTok did not respond directly to Sunday’s Times report, but said that with “reference to the rumors circulated today about ToTok,” the one goal of the app’s creators was to create a reliable, easy-to-use communications platform. The post said ToTok had high-security standards to protect user data and a privacy framework that complied with local and international legal requirements.
ToTok said the app was temporarily unavailable in the app stores from Google and Apple due to a “technical issue.”
The Times says that based on a technical analysis and interviews with security experts, the company behind ToTok, Breej Holding, is most likely affiliated with DarkMatter, an Emirati cybersecurity company that has hired former CIA and National Security Agency analysts and has close business ties to the Emirati government.
Emails sent to ToTok through its website and to the Emirates embassy in Washington were not immediately returned.
[activecampaign form=31]

DON'T MISS

Watch: City Demolishes Historic Chinatown Building to Make Way for Housing

DON'T MISS

The Mystery of Melania Trump’s Wedding Dress and an eBay Sale

DON'T MISS

Heading to Sierra? Prepare for Heavy Snow

DON'T MISS

Mexican National Caught in Fresno County Pleads Guilty to Fentanyl Trafficking

DON'T MISS

CA Snowpack Is Near-Average. What Does This Mean for Water Supplies?

DON'T MISS

Shohei Ohtani Adds Another No. 1 to His Resume: MLB’s Best-Selling Jersey

DON'T MISS

Tush Push Is the Hottest Topic at the NFL League Meetings

DON'T MISS

U.S. Bank Executive Terry Dolan Dies in Plane Crash Near Minneapolis

DON'T MISS

Trump Administration Will Review Billions in Funding for Harvard

DON'T MISS

Former MLB Pitcher CJ Wilson of Fresno on New Torpedo Bats: ‘Still Room for Innovation’

UP NEXT

French Far-Right Leader Marine Le Pen Barred From Seeking Office for 5 Years

UP NEXT

Israeli Military Orders the Evacuation of Gaza’s Southern City of Rafah

UP NEXT

Earthquake Compounds Humanitarian Crisis in Myanmar as Death Toll Passes 1,700

UP NEXT

Myanmar’s Earthquake Death Toll Jumps to 1,644 as More Bodies Are Recovered From the Rubble

UP NEXT

Top Vaccine Official Resigns From FDA, Criticizes RFK Jr. for Promoting Misinformation, Lies

UP NEXT

Trump Pledges US Aid for Asia Quake Despite Former Official Saying System in ‘Shambles’

UP NEXT

Israel Strikes Beirut for the First Time Since a Ceasefire Ended the Latest Israel-Hezbollah War

UP NEXT

Utah Becomes the First State to Ban Fluoride in Public Drinking Water

UP NEXT

At Least 20 Dead in Myanmar After Strong Earthquake

UP NEXT

Wilmer Flores’ 3-Run Homer in the 9th Inning Propels Giants to Victory Over Reds

Mexican National Caught in Fresno County Pleads Guilty to Fentanyl Trafficking

1 hour ago

CA Snowpack Is Near-Average. What Does This Mean for Water Supplies?

2 hours ago

Shohei Ohtani Adds Another No. 1 to His Resume: MLB’s Best-Selling Jersey

2 hours ago

Tush Push Is the Hottest Topic at the NFL League Meetings

2 hours ago

U.S. Bank Executive Terry Dolan Dies in Plane Crash Near Minneapolis

3 hours ago

Trump Administration Will Review Billions in Funding for Harvard

3 hours ago

Former MLB Pitcher CJ Wilson of Fresno on New Torpedo Bats: ‘Still Room for Innovation’

4 hours ago

Man Arrested After Shooting at Fresno’s Switch Nightclub

4 hours ago

Who Is Fresno’s ‘Fake’ ICE Agent? He Speaks Up

5 hours ago

French Far-Right Leader Marine Le Pen Barred From Seeking Office for 5 Years

5 hours ago

Watch: City Demolishes Historic Chinatown Building to Make Way for Housing

Unable to restore a historic Chinatown building, the city of Fresno began demolishing it on Monday morning. The 1920s-era Bow On Tong Associ...

25 minutes ago

25 minutes ago

Watch: City Demolishes Historic Chinatown Building to Make Way for Housing

Photo of First Lady Melania Trump
57 minutes ago

The Mystery of Melania Trump’s Wedding Dress and an eBay Sale

1 hour ago

Heading to Sierra? Prepare for Heavy Snow

Miguel Obed Romero Reyes, 25, of Sinaloa, Mexico, pleaded guilty Monday, March 31, 2025, to trafficking more than 200,000 fentanyl pills after authorities seized the drugs during a traffic stop on Interstate 5. (DOJ)
1 hour ago

Mexican National Caught in Fresno County Pleads Guilty to Fentanyl Trafficking

2 hours ago

CA Snowpack Is Near-Average. What Does This Mean for Water Supplies?

2 hours ago

Shohei Ohtani Adds Another No. 1 to His Resume: MLB’s Best-Selling Jersey

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) lines up for the goal line Tush Push play during the NFL championship playoff football game against the Washington Commanders, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP File)
2 hours ago

Tush Push Is the Hottest Topic at the NFL League Meetings

3 hours ago

U.S. Bank Executive Terry Dolan Dies in Plane Crash Near Minneapolis

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend