App Developer Swiped Cell Numbers

[Michael Essany]

Storm8 has found itself stirring up a storm of controversy in the wake of a lawsuit filed against the developer, which stands accused of "stealing' user's phone numbers." In case you're unaware, that's a big no-no and a blatant violation of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

According to The Mac Observer:

The iPhone game developer Storm8 has been sued for harvesting iPhone cell numbers on iPhones where its game was downloaded. The incident first came to light in August, when Storm8 acknowledged the issue and blamed it on an error that it said was then corrected.

Storm8 offers better than three dozen free and paid games in the App Store, including the popular Zombies Live and iMobsters.

Storm8 has not denied claims that it collected the numbers. In fact, it admits to having collected them. But the lawsuit filed doesn't offer much empathy for Storm8's claim that a glitch in their source code is responsible for the wrongful activity.

Those behind the lawsuit, however, contend that a "glitch" could never cause phone numbers to be harvested and that something much more sinister could possibly have been intended. In case you're wondering, the developer hasn't offered many details on the "glitch" in question and how it could have possibily provoked this situation.

MediaPost also pointed out that the suit will have a high barrier in that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act stipulates that computers were unlawfully accessed and damaged. Having your phone number sent back to a server isn't likely to constitute as damage, but then that's what courts get to figure out.

Image via iEhow.com

[rwin84]

Very shiesty behavior... Im glad i didnt have my # sent out to strangers

[itsmejdn]

so how do we go about adding our claim to the lawsuit? i do remember at one point they asked for my number in order to play or register. i had imobsters, kingdom live and vampire live. all three from storm8.

[Jahooba]

Oh, that's not good. I often wonder about some companies that seem legitimate on the outside, but then are found to be fraudulent in some way, or have an alternate agenda.

I'm not saying that these guys are like that, but when you watch TV most of the time you think that you're watching legitimate companies. Some commercials are scams put on by criminals with lots of money. Like those "Cash for Gold" guys.

Or what about these simple "Password" programs where you import your password information, or credit card remembering programs? How hard would it be to harvest that information, and by the time they were found out they could change their office building and scatter (maybe they're working out of Russia or China?).

I may sound paranoid, but this kind of stuff is certainly possible. I recently had my Steam account hijacked because I wasn't paranoid enough!

[niZmo v2]

Good thing i thought that game was *** and decided not to download it lol

[sale666]

you guys remember the SMS hack you gain control over some 1's iphone?

Hmm well imagine getting 1.000.000.000 of numbers and going trough each one of them collecting information like eamils for spammin,credit card numbers to transfer you 1$ from each,getting a lot other stuff! ... well he had an AWSOME plan no doubt but hey shish kebab happens

[Fallguy]

Nice going Apple , letting this crap get out through your App store . I think they have to do a better job screening .
As for the Douchebags at Storm8 that claim it was a glitch , MY A55 .

[jOnGarrett]

why are so many individuals and corporations obsessed with sealing our personal information and watching everything we do? what legitimate reason could Storm8 give for collecting peoples numbers?

[cpjr]

I knew there was a reason I absolutely hated these games. Thank god I never played them.

[ggab]

Apple is a pretty crappy Big Brother

[pyrotek]

There is no way any sane person should believe that this was a "glitch". In the code they wrote to phone home the UUID, the server side PHP script had a variable built in to pass the phone number on to their MySQL database backend.

HOW COULD THIS BE A GLITCH? The MySQL table would need to have a column to receive the data that the PHP variable was passing along. Maybe the excuse "an unfortunate series of events" would be more fitting.

I bet if you were to look at their SQL table structure, the name of the column was something like "Phone Number".

I packetlogged a Storm8 app not long after their release of Kingdoms. They were using a standard HTTP request to phone home with the URL containing plain text data, which included my phone number. It was not only transmitted on launch, but with some internal functions as well. Kinda pissed me off but I figured, hey what could I do about it?

I'm glad that someone stepped up on this issue and filed suit.

[Exile Team]

Nice going Apple , letting this crap get out through your App store . I think they have to do a better job screening .
As for the Douchebags at Storm8 that claim it was a glitch , MY A55 .

Oh sure lets turn down a flash update for the iphone or an open development plan but lets pass a game that hacks the phone, cool.

why are so many individuals and corporations obsessed with sealing our personal information and watching everything we do? what legitimate reason could Storm8 give for collecting peoples numbers?

If it was a company that had a $100 app like TomTom and wanted to make sure that the people with the app were legit and not just getting it from **********, then it makes more sense, but still wrong.

[stlcaddie]

The only glitch in his code was that he got caught. Dummy. We as people also need to be aware of this **** and need to stay paranoid. I can't even ssh into my phone cause I forgot the password. Oops, but if I can't get in then I guess hopefully no one else can. ( ps , can somewhat help me change my password again )

Oh, and yes. I guess I'm a dummy to for forgetting my password.

[lilskaterpunk]

Bad Bad Bad Storm8!

[bbillh77]

What does apple screen for profitability only. How do i sign up for the lawsuit let me get on this sue wagon

[mortopher]

The only glitch in his code was that he got caught. Dummy. We as people also need to be aware of this **** and need to stay paranoid. I can't even ssh into my phone [be]cause I forgot the password. Oops, but if I can't get in then I guess hopefully no one else can. ( ps , can somewhat help me change my password again )

Oh, and yes. I guess I'm a dummy to for forgetting my password.

Not the only reason.

[stlcaddie]

I'm sure I got a list of reasons.

[rhekt]

god what a looser....

[billchase2]

Yep, also glad I don't play the "mob" games...

[drumstyx]

What can they really do with the numbers though? Unless they had the income, age, and location etc.. of every single user, targeted marketing is out of the question. And if they just wanted to sell number lists, well big deal, it's not like we don't already have a bunch of telemarketers calling.