posted 04-01-2017 01:39 PM                  

How’s that for timing? Just days after Congress voted to repeal online privacy protections that would effectively give internet service providers (ISPs) the power to harvest your browsing data and sell it to the highest bidder, Verizon announced plans to install a service — AppFlash — on subscribers’ devices that will track what apps they’ve downloaded.

AppFlash emerged from startup Evie’s existing app launcher and web search tool, which is also named Evie. After Evie debuted its eponymous launcher a few months back, it teamed up with Verizon for AppFlash. It pops up whenever you swipe to the left of the home screen, and provides a search bar that parses preinstalled apps for restaurants, movies, music, and apps.

More: Verizon fined $1.35 million for tracking customers without them knowing

AppFlash searches the content within those apps, too — if you search for a TV show, you’ll see a list of services currently offering it. And it recommends apps using virtualization technology: You can stream up to a minute of an app from Evie’s servers free of charge.

But according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Evie’s true purpose is far more nefarious. When it begins to roll out to Android Devices on Verizon’s network in the coming weeks, it will have the power to collect such information as your phone number, your phone’s serial number and operating system, the list of apps you’ve installed, your location, and your contact information. And it will use that information to target advertising on third-party websites.

The Rest of the Story:
http://www.yahoo.com/tech/quick-verizon-install-adware-phones-194526811.html