US government agencies including the Army and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pulled apps running Pushwoosh code after learning the software company – which presents itself as American – is actually Russian, according to Reuters.
Pushwoosh is a software company that provides code and data analysis for developers so they can automate custom push notifications based on smartphone users’ online activity. This is the same kind of tracking data – aka commercial surveillance – that major US tech companies like Google and Meta have come under fire for collecting by privacy advocates and watchdog agencies alike.
However, in this case, it’s a Russian company collecting and processing this data. That means in addition to regular old privacy concerns, there’s also national security worries on the line – especially when the US military uses the code.
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Source: The Register