Police in the Zhejiang province in China have arrested 22 third-party Apple distributors for selling iPhone user data. The group is believed to have searched an internal database and sold the sensitive information on the black market with items costing between $1.50 and $26. Information that was sold included Apple IDs and phone numbers.
While it’s not clear how many people’s data was sold by the crooks, what is known is that they made 50 million yuan or $7.36 million by the time the authorities nabbed them. It’s not clear either, how the authorities were able to catch the people selling the data, it could have been a matter of Apple detecting fishy activity or someone reporting their information as stole to the authorities.
So far, Apple hasn"t commented on the breach , however, there will be expectations for the firm to limit what kind of information distributors can see on its internal databases. Questions might also be raised as to what information distributors of other phone brands may have access to, and whether their access should be limited.
Source: Engadget