Beware of SyncME, an App That Publicly Shares Your Name & Phone Number

Have you ever heard of the Sync.ME application for Android or iOS? Chances are you haven’t. But just because you have never installed this app on your device doesn’t mean you’re not in its database already.

It sounds creepy, but this is actually happening as we speak. Sync.ME is a caller ID app which offers a surprising “bonus.” The application is publicly sharing more than a billion phone numbers and the name of their owners. And it doesn’t matter that you never downloaded or installed the app. Chances are someone in your contact list did.

Why would people generally want to use Sync.ME, you might wonder. Well, due to the application’s flair for detecting incoming unwanted / spam calls from telemarketers or bank workers.

Those willing to install Sync.ME on their respective devices must allow the app to sync with their phone contacts and social networks, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Google. This is because the app wants to link your contacts with their respective pictures and other info, even as their number is not stored in that phone.

Sync.ME is an oversharer

However, through this process, the app stores not only the numbers of the users who willingly downloaded and installed the app but also others that are found in the legit users’ contact lists and social media, as it has been pointed out on Reddit.

And then, the unimaginable happens: all these numbers are made available along with the names they belong to (or the name you’ve been saved under in your buddy’s contact list) through its public number-lookup service. Ouch.

How is this possible? Well, this is a classic case of users clicking the “I accept” button for the terms of use clauses without actually reading them. What they are actually agreeing to here is to allow the app to share all its users’ contact information. But what about sharing the users’ friends contact info?

That’s a bit of a trickier situation. Sync.ME attempts to do some damage control by stipulating in the terms of use that users should “make sure not to share any other person’s details without his or her prior consent.”

So virtually, the company is indeed exposing itself to accusations of violating the privacy of non-users onto its site.

The good news is that you can request for your private data to be removed from sync.ME by following this link.