Telmap Ltd. today began offering its new M8 navigation app for free in Israel via Google and Android app stores. An examination by "Globes" found that the application is liable to greatly jeopardize the user's privacy, because it requires the user to provide numerous authorizations, which not consumer will agree to accept, if he or she reads the small print before installing the application.
The M8 app can photograph the user at any time without his or her knowledge, read the telephone log, including incoming and outgoing calls and contacts, and peruse SMSs. It is not clear why a navigation app requires all this data, and cannot rely only on the user's location, which is essential for the app's operation.
Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC) acquired Telmap in September 2011 for $120 million. The company does not sell under its own name, but through the labels of the mobile provider, such as the Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) Navigator. The service is either offered as part of the mobile carrier's plan or for a fee of NIS 10-25.
The M8 Navigator is an improved version of its predecessors. It can make restaurant reservations via the Zap Rest site, offers location-based benefits via the OnMyWay site, and reserves parking spaces in private buildings via Easy Park. Later, it will allow parking in Israel via Pango. TelMap is considering developing a version for Microsoft Windows Phone 8 and the Blackberry 10 operating systems. The software also includes reports about traffic and the location of police on the roads from users and other sources, such as Decell Technologies Ltd..
Telmap said in response, "Telmap is fully aware of the sensitivity about user privacy, and developed the M8 in a way that respects users' privacy. The M8 app has no component that needlessly violates user privacy or without the user's explicit permission."
Telmap added that the M8 app seeks to confirm the user's authorization in the same way as other navigation and location services.
Telmap cited specific differences in the authorizations. For example, the authorization for services which cost money or which require accessing notices allows users to send and receive SMSs that include location and to call a business. "This activity is only allowed after an explicit request by the user and is never made automatically or without the user's request," says the company. The same is the case for the use of calls made by the phone.
As for the phone camera, it says, "Telmap does not make any use of the phone camera and it does not permit access to this component. The request for this authorization will be updated in the next version that will reach the stores."
A simpler interpretation of this last sentence means that Telmap will terminate its access to the phone camera.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 19, 2013
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