Popular chat app is UAE government spy tool: NY Times
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The Aldar Building in Abu Dhabi is where the UAE\'s signals intelligence agency and Pax AI, a data mining firm linked to ToTok, have their offices.
American intelligence assessment and a New York Times investigation have revealed that the government of the United Arab Emirates uses the popular messaging application, ToTok, as a spying tool.
The New York Times reported that the app -- which is branded as a secure messaging service even in the UAE that has restricted other services like WhatsApp and Skype -- is used by the Emirati government to try to track every conversation, movement, relationship, appointment, sound and image of those who install it on their cell phones.
According to the report, millions of users across West Asia, Europe, Asia, Africa and North America downloaded ToTok, which was introduced recently, from the Apple and Google app stores.
Most of the users of the application are in the UAE, but the service became one of the most downloaded social apps in the United States last week, according to app rankings and App Annie, a research firm.
The NYT cited its investigation into the app and its developers, and interviews with current and former American foreign officials familiar with the classified intelligence assessment as saying that “ToTok amounts to the latest escalation in a digital arms race among wealthy authoritarian governments” which are pursuing more effective methods to spy on foreign foes, journalists and critics.
The report said Persian Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE previously turned to private companies — including Israeli and American contractors — to hack rivals and, increasingly, their own citizens.
The American daily cited experts as saying that the development of ToTok showed that the governments can cut out the intermediary to spy directly on their targets, who voluntarily, if unwittingly, hand over their information.
ME
