Stolen: App that allowed people to ‘steal’ Twitter accounts pulled from the App Store
People didn’t have to opt into the game, and they might only find out that they’re being played by accident
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Your support makes all the difference.An app that allowed people’s Twitter accounts to be “stolen” without their consent has been pulled from the App Store.
The game Stolen allowed people to “steal” Twitter accounts as part of a game that makes them into cards and then allows people to trade them. It became hugely controversial because people didn’t opt into the game and, once a card was stolen, anyone could write anything they liked onto the profile’s card.
The company has now pulled the app from the App Store in response to concerns about how it might violate people’s privacy and lead to abuse.
“The app is no longer available in the App Store,” the company tweeted, only days after it became semi-popular. “We've heard everyone's concerns and have decided the best thing to do is to shut down.
People who played the game and bought currency with real money will have that refunded, the company said.
The first reply to the tweet was from Sam Pepper, the controversial YouTube star. “All you had to do is remove the section where people can edit your profile on the app,” he wrote.
That tweet was in reference to the controversial feature that allowed anyone to write on another’s profile, in a way that could be mistaken for information that had been uploaded by the account-holders themselves.
But others said that the idea of the app itself was questionable. Whether or not it allowed the editing of the accounts, stolen allowed for the trading of people’s identities without ever getting their consent that they wanted to be part of the game.
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