Chinese firm apologizes for enabling security breach of Apple user data

Guangzhou Youmi Mobile Technology apologized Tuesday for disseminating code allowing at least 256 apps on Apple’s iPhone operating system to access users’ email addresses, device identification and other private information, The Wall Street Journal reported. The apps, all of which had used software produced by the mobile-ad company, had been downloaded roughly one million times, according to US security firm SourceDNA. Youmi developers appear to have begun experimenting with such data extraction almost two years ago. The breach is the second China-related vulnerability in Apple’s official App Store in the past month. For more on user data security in China, see CER’s in-depth report.