VidMate was developed and owned by UCWeb, a subsidiary of Alibaba, prior to being sold off last year.Ī VidMate spokesperson who used the name Jiatao Chen on Skype told BuzzFeed News it takes the findings by Upstream seriously and blamed any alleged suspicious behavior on third-party software development kits (SDKs) and partners. Upstream said it began blocking these transactions as early as 2017 and saw their volume dramatically increase late last year. Over the past six months Upstream blocked more than 128 million “suspicious” transactions by the VidMate app that could have cost users in Egypt, Brazil, Myanmar, and elsewhere more than $150 million in unwanted, unauthorized mobile subscriptions, according to the company. (The alleged ad fraud occurs in VidMate when it displays ads that users can’t actually see.)
"The phone and its connection become part of a botnet and are used to commit ad fraud, at the expense of its owner. Guy Krief, the CEO of Upstream, said users who download and open VidMate “surrender control of their phone and personal information to a third party." He also declined to provide basic information such as the names of VidMate executives and funders, and did not respond to follow-up questions, including a request to confirm his name and title. Researchers at Upstream say VidMate subjects its users to a range of suspicious behavior that could be costing them money, draining their phone batteries, and exposing their personal information.ĭuring a Skype interview, a VidMate spokesperson denied that the app knowingly engages in suspicious activity, and said it is investigating. VidMate has been displaying hidden ads, secretly subscribing people to paid services, and draining users’ mobile data, according to findings from security researchers at a London-based mobile technology firm.
This functionality made VidMate, which has ties to Chinese tech giant Alibaba, hugely popular in countries such as India where streaming mobile video can be expensive or at times unreliable.īut it appears that convenience still comes at a high cost for users.
More than half a billion people have installed VidMate, an Android app that enables them to download videos from YouTube, WhatsApp, and other platforms.
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