Google says Slice payments app spies photos, audio records and call history

• Google has termed Slice a harmful app, advising users to uninstall it.
• The app allegedly tried to spy on users’ personal data such as messages, photos, audio records and call history.
• Slice claims that the company has fixed the issue.

Fintech company Slice, which has introduced itself as an alternative to credit cards, has come under scrutiny after Google alerted users that the app was trying to spy on users’ personal data.

Google Play Protect regularly scans apps installed on the device to identify malicious apps trying to steal user data. Play Protect sent out a notification today saying “Slice puts your device at risk”.

Slice tries to spy on personal data

Notification sent by Play Protect. Saurabh Jain

Discover the Future of SaaS in India The 6-part video series will capture the vision of Indian SaaS leaders and highlight the potential of the sector in the decades to come. View our speakers on demandClicking on the notification takes the user to the Play Protect page which reveals that Slice is a harmful app that is trying to spy on personal data such as messages, photos, audio recordings or call history. It also recommended users to uninstall the app.

Slice claims it has fixed the issue

Slice has issued a clarification on Twitter, claiming that the issue has been fixed. “Yesterday evening – Our Android update caused a vulnerability message from the Play Store. We investigated it and fixed the issue within 4 hours.” 1% of app users are still on the previous version. If you are seeing this issue, we would request you to update your app to the latest version as soon as possible, Slice said.

At the moment, it is unclear what triggered the alert and whether Slice was trying to spy on users with its earlier updates. The company has not clarified why the app was trying to spy on its users.

This comes at a time when Slice is already in hot water with the country’s central bank. The Reserve Bank of India recently barred non-banking prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) such as wallets and prepaid cards from loading credit lines on its platform.

The central bank has said that non-banking institutions cannot load credit lines on them. Slice and Unicards are among the companies that will be affected.

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