Security News > 2020 > January > ToTok Returned to Google Play Despite ‘Spy Tool’ Claims

Mobile application ToTok has been reinstated to the Google Play app ecosystem, after it was removed last month due to claims that it was being used for government espionage.

Despite the app's popularity, it was quickly take down from Google Play and the Apple App Store after a report from the New York Times in December claimed that the app is actually being used by the government of the United Arab Emirates as a spy tool used to track users' conversations and location.

Google had originally told the New York Times that it removed the app because it "Violated unspecified policies." When asked why the app was returned to Google Play, a Google spokesperson told Threatpost that "We take reports of security and privacy violations seriously. If we find behavior that violates our policies, we take action."

The app appears to be updated on Google Play; under a "What's New" tab on the Google Store app page, ToTok says there is now a newly-designed dialog to ask for user authorization for accessing and syncing their contact lists.

"Google allowed ToTok back into its Google Play store over the weekend, despite the fact that the intel community insists the chat app is a spy tool for the UAE and ToTok is trying to bribe journalists into saying good things about it," she said in a tweet.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/totok-returned-to-google-play-spy-tool/151576/