Runkeeper: data sharing was due to bug

According to Runkeeper, his Android app accidentally sent location data to a third party when the smartphone is not in use. The Norwegian Consumers’ Association filed a complaint about this last week. The bug should have been fixed by now.

An investigation by Runkeeper itself, in response to the Norwegian complaint, revealed the bug, the company said. The flaw involved the integration of a third-party advertising service. When running in the background, the app could be awakened by, for example, push notifications, and due to the bug, the app would unintentionally transmit GPS data in those cases.

Runkeeper subsequently released a new version of its Android app that no longer contains the relevant advertising service. Although the bug is not in the iOS version, according to the company, the service has also been removed from that app. The updated app will be available as soon as Apple approves it.

The Norwegian consumer association Forbrukerrådet last week filed a complaint with the country’s privacy authority about the behavior of the popular jogging app. According to the association, it should be investigated whether this does not break Norwegian and European privacy rules. It is not clear from the complaint and the associated investigation by the association from February whether Runkeeper was contacted at the time about sharing the data.