FCC investigates LocationSmart over phone tracking

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ANI Washington [United States]
Last Updated : May 21 2018 | 2:00 PM IST

LocationSmart, a website that claimed it could find any phone in the US, is now being investigated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over security vulnerability.

Security researchers have discovered a vulnerability on LocationSmart's website which would have allowed anyone to use the tracking feature without the need of prior consent, Cnet reported.

The researcher at the Carnegie Mellon University, Robert Xiao, said the exploit was elementary. Although the bug has been fixed, the FCC launched an investigation as it put to risk privacy of users.

LocationSmart is one of the many companies the US government has ordered to investigate as these are able to obtain accurate geolocation data on phones from major carriers and sell that data to businesses.

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First Published: May 21 2018 | 2:00 PM IST

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