Despite warnings, users continue to download and use the Turkish “Get Contact” phone software. Doing so, they endanger not only their personal information, but their contacts.
“This program is a great threat, because every person, by downloading it on his android and IOS phone, automatically retrieves his contacts from the “Get Contact” database. That is, if I’m not in the database, my friend or relative will automatically include my phone number. If you have a phone number, you can easily find the phone’s IP code and wire the phone, take phone softwares, be it a picture, etc.,” said security expert Vahan Azibekyan.
On December 10, 2017, the Armenian Ministry of Justice has warned about the negative effects of this software, but after the warning, the downloads have not diminished. Some have started to download the software because of curiosity, some for having fun.
“The girls, for example, write the number and say, oh, look, someone has registered me as “Cuties”, let’s know who he is. The boys want to know who is registered by their nicknames. They do not realize the seriousness of this project,” Vahan Azibekyan said.
The software is easy to download, and the phone number can also be removed, for which you need to access the appropriate site, but it is no longer possible to prevent the information leakage.
“As the program was installed in the phone, the phone number has been fixed in their database. They will receive a message if you remove it. but the contact will still remain,” said the expert.
Some Armenian users, who are aware of the program’s harmfulness, remove it from the phone, some find it is not dangerous, they are retaining only for interest. At the same time, not everybody knows how to remove their phone number from the “Get Contact” database.
The program has been downloaded by more than 5 million people and has raised a great deal of dissatisfaction in many CIS and European countries. Measures are taken to prevent its spread. Particularly, they are banned in Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.