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Security researchers have uncovered a flaw in the way thousands of popular mobile applications store data online, leaving users' personal information, including passwords, addresses, door codes and location data, vulnerable to hackers.
The team of German researchers found 56 million items of unprotected data in the applications it studied in detail, which included games, social networks, messaging, medical and bank transfer apps.
The vulnerable applications, which they declined to name, number in the tens of thousands, and include some of the most popular on the Apple and Google app stores.
Rasthofer said all four companies had responded to their findings; he said Apple staff had told him on Monday that they would soon incorporate warnings to developers to double check their security settings before uploading apps to its App Store.
Google declined to comment, while Apple and Amazon did not respond to queries.
A Facebook spokesperson said that after researchers notified it of the vulnerability the company had been working with affected developers. She declined to provide details.
