Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT) is developing a new data protection tool for mobile apps, called MetaMiner, that can expose and block tracking services in apps that secretly spy on users. MetaMiner can show users how they are being tracked by mobile apps and how to put a stop to it.
MetaMiner uses diagrams and graphics to show users which apps are using supplementary libraries for tracking and advertisement purposes, when and with which third parties their phone is secretly communicating and where their data is being transmitted.
Fraunhofer SIT developed MetaMiner as part of the research network Forum Privacy financed by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). Fraunhofer SIT publicly presented MetaMiner for the first time at Web Monday on 20 November in Darmstadt. A prototype for MetaMiner currently exists for Android. Fraunhofer said researchers are developing additional functions for MetaMiner in order to make the tool available to end users as an app in the future.
