One of China’s most popular apps has the ability to spy on its users, say experts | CNN Business

The article discusses the discovery of malware in Pinduoduo's shopping app, which allows access to users' sensitive information without consent. The team that developed the exploits was disbanded by Pinduoduo after it was discovered.

Here are some key points from the article:

1. **Malware discovery**: In late February, a Chinese cybersecurity firm called Dark Navy reported finding malware in Pinduoduo's shopping app.
2. **Exploits uncovered**: The malware allowed access to users' sensitive information, including locations, contacts, calendars, notifications, and photo albums.
3. **Team disbandment**: After the discovery, Pinduoduo disbanded the team of engineers and product managers who had developed the exploits.
4. **Update removals exploits**: Two days after the update, Pinduoduo removed the malware from its app.
5. **Oversight failure**: The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology failed to detect the malware, which is embarrassing for regulators.
6. **Regulatory concerns**: The incident raises concerns about the effectiveness of China's regulatory framework in protecting user privacy.
7. **Censorship**: A cybersecurity expert with 1.8 million followers on Weibo wrote a post criticizing regulators' inability to understand coding and programming, which was censored by the platform.

Overall, the article highlights the risks posed by poorly designed apps and the importance of robust regulatory oversight in protecting user privacy.
 
🤔 this malware incident is like a wake-up call for us all - we gotta be super cautious when using our favorite shopping apps 🛍️, especially if they're getting updates fast 📦. it's crazy how one team could create such a malicious code that even the regulators missed 🙈. it makes me think about the importance of diversity in coding teams and having regular security audits 🔍. also, what's up with all these censorship issues on weibo? shouldn't our opinions be freely shared like 🤝 open-source software?
 
omg u gotta think about this... ppl r sayin that pinduoduo got busted 4 malware & they just deleted the team that made it & removed the exploit from their app. but can we really blame them? i mean, if ur not careful, u can make some pretty nasty stuff 🤖. & let's be real, cyber sec is like, super hard lol u gotta have experts watchin over these things 24/7 or else they're gonna get exploited 😂. & btw, what r ppl even expect from china's reg framework? they're tryna keep up with the game, right? 🤷‍♂️
 
ugh this is super worrying 🤯 i mean i know we need a strong economy but at what cost? our personal info is literally being sold like cheap goods on the open market 🚮 it's not just pinduoduo either, think about all those other apps out there collecting your data without even asking 😴 and to make matters worse, the regulators can't even be bothered to do their job properly 🙄 it's like they're asleep at the wheel while our digital lives are being hacked to bits 💻 we need more transparency and accountability from these big tech companies, pronto ⏰
 
I'm so annoyed 🤯 when I see companies like Pinduoduo prioritizing profits over users' safety! I mean, come on, who wants their private info just lying around for hackers to snatch? 🤫 It's not exactly reassuring that the company itself didn't even notice it was a problem until some third-party firm pointed it out. 😒

And what really gets me is that this is just another example of China's regulatory framework failing users. I'm sure there are loads of other apps out there with similar security issues just waiting to happen 🤦‍♂️. It's not like Pinduoduo was doing anything wrong, it's just a case of bad design and oversight.

I'm also kinda disappointed in the government for not being able to do better 👎. I get that regulations can be tricky, but this is basic stuff - protecting user data! 🙄 The fact that a cybersecurity expert got censored on Weibo for speaking out is just another example of how things are rigged against regular people 🤷‍♂️.

Anyway, I'm glad Pinduoduo removed the malware and cleaned up their act 💯. But seriously, this should be a wake-up call for companies and regulators alike to prioritize user safety and data protection 🔒.
 
I'm not surprised that someone managed to slip through the cracks like this... I mean, how often do you hear about malicious code being found in popular apps? 🤔 Still, it's a serious issue and Pinduoduo should be taking responsibility for their own security measures.

The fact that they got rid of the team behind it is a good move, but I'm not sure if it was enough to fix everything. I'd rather see some real, long-term changes in place before I can confidently use their app again 🤦‍♂️ And yeah, that regulatory oversight failure is pretty cringeworthy... how's that supposed to help anyone? 😳
 
Man, this is so annoying 🤯! Pinduoduo's shopping app getting hacked like this? It's crazy how they didn't even think about the consequences of what their devs were doing 💻. And yeah, it's embarrassing for regulators that they missed it too 😳. I mean, come on, coding isn't rocket science 🚀, but apparently, some people need to brush up on it 🤓. And censuring the cybersecurity expert who spoke out? That's just not cool 👎. It shows they're more worried about reputation than actual security 💸. We gotta keep pushing for better regulations and more transparency so this kind of thing doesn't happen again 🔒.
 
[Image of a person with a sad face surrounded by warning signs, with a caption "When you download an app from China 🚫😕"]

[Image of a phone screen showing a shopping app with a red X marked through it, with a caption "Malware alert! 💻👀"]

[Image of a team of engineers sitting in a room with a caption "The team that made the malware... well, they're not working there anymore 🤣"]

[Image of a person shrugging with a caption "Regulatory oversight: when 'experts' can't even code 🤦‍♂️"]
 
🤔 this is so worrying, i mean pinduoduo's got a huge user base in china and now we know they had some seriously shady stuff going on in their app 🚫 it's not just about the malware itself, but how they handled it afterwards too - disbanding the team that created the exploits kinda feels like damage control rather than taking responsibility 💼 and yeah, the fact that the chinese ministry of industry and info tech didn't detect this is pretty embarrassing for them 😳 i mean, you'd think with all their resources and 'oversight' they could've spotted something fishy 🐟 but i guess that's not how it works out sometimes 😔
 
Ugh 🤦‍♂️, what's wrong with these companies? They can't even keep their own app safe from malware 🚫. I mean, it's not like Pinduoduo didn't have enough on its plate dealing with all those fake reviews and whatnot. But no, they had to go and mess up by letting some shady team of engineers develop this crap and then just sweep it under the rug 🧹.

And don't even get me started on the regulatory side of things 🤯. I mean, if the Ministry of Industry and Info Tech can't detect malware, what's the point? It's not like they're doing a great job now 😒. And now we've got some cybersecurity expert getting censored for speaking truth to power 🚫... meanwhile, the company gets to just apologize and move on with its day 💸.

It's all just another example of how no one cares about user privacy anymore 🤷‍♂️. We're all just pawns in a game we don't even understand 😅.
 
OMG u guys can't believe what happened with Pinduoduo's shopping app 🤯 they found out that some bad people created malware to steal users' sensitive info like location & contact list 📦😱 it's super scary thinking about how many ppl were affected by this

anyway i was talking to my friend who works in IT and he said its not just Pinduoduo but lots of apps are vulnerable 2 this kinda thing 🤖 cuz most regulators r still sleeping 😴 so we need 2 be more careful online & report any suspicious activity ASAP 💻
 
omg u guys i cant believe this happened again 🤯 on pinduoduo they just didnt think twice about adding malware to their app like what if someone gets scammed out of money or worse 🤑🚫 and now its even more ridiculous that the whole team that did it got canned lol but seriously tho how do u expect them to know what they're doing when they dont even follow their own guidelines 🙄 and btw its not just about pinduoduo its about all the other apps out there too, like china needs some serious regulation on this stuff 💯
 
omg this is so sus 🤔 how did they even miss this? like i know china has a huge internet presence but shouldn't regulators be on top of things? 🙄 i mean, 1.8 million followers can't be wrong... and it's not like the cybersecurity expert was trying to stir up drama or anything 😒

and pinduoduo just removed the malware from their app two days after it got discovered? that's so convenient 🙃 shouldn't they have been notified sooner? did they even know who developed this stuff in the first place?

i'm not sure if i'm just being paranoid but shouldn't we be seeing more about what went wrong here? like, what were the root causes of this exploit? and what are regulators going to do differently next time? 🤔💻
 
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