So many apps think they get to dictate what their customers can and cannot do with phones their customers have purchased with their own money.

So many apps still complain about rooted phones.

How long before they flag their competitors' apps as threats? https://twitter.com/jackerhack/status/1233671815022686208

Since @Paytm is so concerned about apps that can "steal" their customers' "confidential data"

Let's take a look at what kind of "confidential data" the @Paytm app "steals" from their customers.

Why the F*** does @Paytm need to know what apps their
customers are using?

Does your bank ask to audit your PC before using netbanking?

Who appointed @Paytm the chowkidar of your customers' phones @vijayshekhar ?

The @Paytm app can read/modify/delete all your files.

Why does a payment app need that kind of access to all your data?

All Android apps get full access to store their files.within their own app directory.

Even when you deny an app access to 'Storage' the app can still read and write to files in the app's directory.

Why does a payment app need to record audio?

Why does it need to track your location?

Will @Paytm prevent you from spending your money if you are at a location their Chinese masters do not approve of?

OMG! @Paytm is literally "stealing" their customers' confidential information!

Why does Paytm need to know how planned/unplanned/busy/vela their customers are?

Why does @Paytm want to email people without the phone owners knowledge?

Remember how creepy @Paytm is tracking all their customers' location....

But what if some customer is privacy conscious and denies that permission?

Do you think @Paytm respects their customers' wishes and stops stalking them? https://twitter.com/kingslyj/status/1233684031083970562

They have a sneaky backdoor to stalk their customers in a way that most people won't even realise that @Paytm is tracking their location.

They grab the users' Wi-Fi information and use that to determine their location.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_positioning_system

The @Paytm app also wants to go through all their customers' contact list and helpfully modify the contents of their customers' contact list.

And @Paytm is also very very interested in their customers' fitness and health!

You know how (some?) Android phones, support multiple users/guest mode, so that you can keep your data compartmentalised... work/personal/confidential/guest etc.

@Paytm doesn't like customers having that kind of privacy.

They want full access to all users' data on the device!

And what good is having all these snooping privileges if @Paytm has to rely on their customers opening the app before they can start harvesting all this data for profit?

Well @Paytm has that covered.. their app starts automatically on boot and gets access to all the data 24x7.

And that's just from the Android app's permissions.

@Paytm also installs a bunch of trackers to snoop on their customers some more.

From https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/ 

You can read about 10 different trackers that @Paytm uses from

https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/net.one97.paytm/latest/

And @Paytm @PaytmBank spokesperson defends their app snooping on their customers in the most absurd way possible by blaming @Google @Android.

And in the process shows off their ceaselessness and ignorance about Android's privacy /security features.

https://entrackr.com/2020/03/why-is-paytm-flagging-teamviewer-zoom-apps-as-threat/

Android has a built-in feature to prevent apps from recording/screenshotting secure screens for ages.

Since API level 1(1.0/Sept 2008) https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/WindowManager.LayoutParams#FLAG_SECURE

and since API Level 17 (4.2 / Nov 2012.) allows apps to check if the display is really secure.
https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/Display#FLAG_SECURE

The @Paytm app requires Android 4.3 and up but doesn't take advantage of these features and they are blaming Android for not caring about privacy and security as much as their devs who are snooping wholesale on their customers "for their own good"

If there was any truth to these absurd claims from @Paytm @PaytmBank every single banking app around the world would be doing all this and more since real banks have a lot more money at stake than Paytm's crippled payments bank accounts / wallets.

Here's a small sample of online banking apps form international banks and the number of permissions they require.

Not one of them comes anywhere close to @Paytm 's 49 permissions and 10 trackers.

The stupid @PaytmBank goes all the way to the top.

They've actually put out this "newsvertisement" about a month ago.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/gadgets-news/paytm-payments-bank-will-now-tell-you-to-delete-dangerous-apps-on-your-phone/articleshow/73705455.cms

The largest fraud prevention team and not one of them told @Paytm that they are not using basic security features baked into Android that every other banking app in the world is using?

Dear journalists.

Please do your job and stop this stupidity from further spreading/infecting all Indian banking apps.

We may be on the verge of another "Do not use mobile phones at petrol bunks" moment that'll take forever to be undone.

Please RT/tag journalists you know.