Meitu app used by millions of Brits is sending their personal information to CHINA
BEWARE the selfie app taking Britain by storm.
Meitu is harvesting people's personal information and sending it back to China, security experts have warned.
It's just the latest security pitfall for selfie fans, after it emerged that the trend for making peace signs in your snaps could lead hackers to access your devices.
"Meitu is a throw-together of multiple analytics and marketing/ad tracking packages, with something cute to get people to use it," computer forensic Jonathan Zdziarski warned on Twitter.
Meitu will figure out whether an iPhone is jailbroken, what phone provider the owner is using and various personal preferences so it can track and send you targeted adverts.
Unique phone IMEI numbers are shipped to dozens of Chinese servers.
These numbers identify the make and model of your device and if you bought it using a contract with a phone provider, it will be stored under your name in a database.
During installation, Meitu requests permission to access device and app history, the phone's location, calls, photos and media files, storage, the camera, wifi connection information.
It even asks for access to your vibration feature.
The information will likely be used to track users to send them personalised advertising.
But the warning is unlikely to sway the masses from installing the hit app.
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Meitu, which means “beautiful picture” in Chinese, claims to make people appear "more beautiful" in their pictures.
The main retouch options allow users to remove spots, make skin smoother or whiter, slim down the face or increase the size of eyes.
At the end of last year, more than 450 million people were using the app every month according to the developers.
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