From past few days it has been observed that some of bloggers and researchers are publishing same post under different names that a cellular brand known as INFINIX is anonymously stealing data of users and sending back to their servers. When I saw the post for the first time I was also shocked but then same article published in some other blog with some technical wordings and evidence. According to their point of view the app called BaBel Font is the culprit which is preinstalled in INFINIX phones and that particular app is sending the data to their servers.
So let me explain the following points!
What is BaBel Font? BaBel Fonts is a free font manager for android devices. It provides hundreds of stylish fonts, easy to use BaBel Fonts Family , preview the fonts details and change system font with one tap. In addition, BaBel Fonts support most languages around the world. And it can be used as backend font provider. Samsung, Huawei, Infinix, TECNO, Symphony, Lava, LG, MIUI, OPPO etc use BaBel Fonts, Why it take such Permission? If we divide apps into categories then same kind of apps needs pretty much same kind of permissions, if an app is taking extra permission other than its category then we can say it’s a culprit. But if a category of apps developed by different developer around the world and all apps take same permission then no one is culprit or misusing, in fact they need those permission to properly work.
As you can clearly see the comparison of same category of apps and all of above required pretty much the same permission. Are these all apps are "Controversial"?
No because all those permission are required to provide full functionality. Justification of Babel Font Developers. I personally sent email to Iekie (Developer of Babel Fonts) to get justification about the app permission and the data it needs so here’s what the representative said to me on their email.
Hi, Thank you Seemab for your feedback.
Sorry that our app causes to your worries. We ensure that your data are well protected. And all the permissions are necessary to make users' experience better. We will release a new version in early december and all the data will be encrypted. Thank you! What kind of Data is being sent?
GET/rest/api3.do?t=1480159338&
data={ "c1":"InfinixHOT4","c2":"umeng", "c0":"Infinix","device_global_id":"utdid_error","app_version":"10.5.2.2.0", "c6":"3c10ae4918f05567","c4":"02:00:00:00:00:00", "sdk_version":20160215,"new_device":"true", "c5":"0177810690204116","package_name":"com.mephone.fonts", "c3":"umeng"} &v=4.0&sign=30dd562cfb907706b583dcca5f546971&imei=***** &appKey=umeng:56e28e8be0f*********&api=mtop.push.device. createAndRegister&imsi=umeng&ttid=android@umeng HTTP/1.1 Host: api.m.taobao.com Connection: Keep-Alive User-Agent: Agoo-sdk-2.0 Accept-Encoding: gzip The Above code is written in JSON which is used to Sync Android app data with the database, and it is an API call which sends basic info of the device which every app need to run like "Device Name", "Device ID", "Error Report", "App current Version", "Package Name(application name)", "Application SDK version" etc. In above code Nothing is private or Suspicious & its basic detail needed for application to run properly. Even then they will encrypt the data in comming update. Why Data is being sent? Most of the app developer need data for Analytics to boost the performance and keep an eye on their progress in Market like how many brands are using our apps, which android version have best support for the app, which sdk version produce which type of errors, which is current version of the app that person is using etc. They need this data to provide you best possible user experience. Why INFINIX use this Font Manager? In infinix mobiles this (BaBel Font Manager) is preinstalled and it is located inside XTHEME app under fonts section which allows user to Change their fonts without ROOTING the phone and Avoid Risk of Warranty violation . As this font manager is Multi Language Support so it covers more audience then other available font managers.(My Point of View). We cant uninstall this app because it is Integrated with the XTHEME app that is a system app help to change themes wallpapers and fonts. Still feeling Uncomfortable? If you still feeling uncomfortable with this app you can easily disable this app and deny any permission it requires, All you need is to goto settings > Apps then follow the given steps.
NOTE: After disabling it you won’t be able to change fonts through XTHEME
1 Comment
HAROON
1/6/2017 12:27:37 pm
Thanks for the useful info!
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Seemab JanjuaA technology enthusiast. Archives
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