A significant data breach at location data firm Gravy Analytics has exposed the sensitive location data of millions of users. The compromised data includes coordinates from mobile devices across the US, Europe, and Russia, with some records also linking the location data to specific apps. Popular apps like Candy Crush, Tinder, MyFitnessPal, and various others are impacted. The data was initially posted on a Russian-language forum by a hacker using the alias "Nightly".
The breadth of the breach is staggering with apps across several categories being affected including dating apps such as Grindr, games like Temple Run and Subway Surfers, transit apps such as Moovit, period trackers, religious apps including muslim prayer and christian bible apps, various pregnancy trackers, and even virtual private network (VPN) applications. It appears that these apps were co-opted by rogue members of the advertising industry to collect this data through the advertising bid stream, often without the knowledge of the app developers. This has raised concerns about how user data is being collected and sold within the advertising ecosystem.