Alibaba’s Huge Browser Business Is Harvesting The ‘Private’ Web Activity Of Millions Of Android And iPhone Users

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Exclusive: Alibaba’s Huge Browser Business Is Harvesting The ‘Private’ Web Activity Of Millions Of Android And iPhone Users

 

If you went to download Alibaba-owned app UC Browser this month, whether from Google’s Android Play store or Apple’s iOS App Store, you would have been promised that with its “incognito” mode, no web browsing or search history would be recorded. Such guarantees, alongside promises of fast download times, have made the app, created by Alibaba subsidiary UCWeb, incredibly popular across the world, with 500 million downloads on Android alone. Whilst Americans may not have heard of the app, according to one analysis, it’s the fourth biggest browser by user numbers in the world, largely because of large user bases in Asia. Prior to a ban by the Indian government over security concerns linked to Chinese apps, it was reportedly one of the most popular browsers in India.

 

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/06/01/exclusive-alibabas-huge-browser-business-is-recording-millions-of-android-and-iphone-users-private-web-habits/

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In case the link to the full article should not work, here is a copy in the PDF format:

 

Alibaba’s Huge Browser Business Is Harvesting The ‘Private’ Web Activity Of Millions Of Android And iPhone Users.pdf