Researchers Accuse Russia's Yandex Of Breach Of User Privacy

Researchers alleged that Russian internet company Yandex NV YNDX had embedded code into apps found on mobile devices that help to transmit user information to Russian servers, the Financial Times reports.
Yandex's software helped developers create apps for devices running Apple Inc's AAPL iOS and Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL Google's Android, systems that ran the vast majority of the world's smartphones.
Yandex, also known as Russia's Google, collected user data harvested from mobiles before sending the information to servers in Russia.
Researchers alleged that the Kremlin might access the same "metadata" and use it to track people through their mobiles.
FT notes that Yandex acknowledged that its software collected device, network, and IP address information stored in Finland and Russia. However, the data was non-personalized and very limited, Yandex argued. Practically it was difficult to identify users based solely on such information collected.
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden criticized Google and Apple for not doing enough to secure smartphones from the Yandex software.