Apple pulls security app from App Store

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SAN FRANCISCO, July 19 (UPI) -- The maker of an iPhone security app that scanned apps for privacy policies says its program has been removed from the App Store after two months on the market.

Bitdefender, the developer of the iOS app that let users see what information installed applications had access to, said Apple alerted them to the removal of the app which was first released in late May "after initial approval and sale," CNET reported Thursday.

Bitdefender used a proprietary database to inform users whether a particular iPhone application accessed things like unique identification numbers and other personal information.

While Apple declined to comment on the removal, it may have been because the app violated a section the company's App Review Guidelines covering "incorrect diagnostic or other inaccurate device data," CNET said.

Before its removal Bitdefender analyzed more than 65,000 apps on the iOS platform, its developers said, and found a number of noteworthy privacy behaviors, including apps that tracked a user's location with informing them, and apps that could access a user's entire address book and send that information to the cloud without notification.

Although Bitdefender has been removed from the App Store, people who downloaded the app when it was still available can continue to use it, the developers said.