ToTok, alleged UAE government spyware posing as a chat app, pulled from Play Store

[Redaktion]

Following a damning New York Times report, popular chat app ToTok was pulled from the Google Play Store. The report indicated that the app was UAE government spyware masquerading as a chat app to monitor the personal information of millions of users.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/ToTok-alleged-UAE-government-spyware-posing-as-a-chat-app-pulled-from-Play-Store.448717.0.html

[Samiha A DAWOOD]

Sorry but our government the UAE doesn't need to spy on its people because we simply have no reason whatsoever but to be loyal to our country. Incase you dont know us the UAE citizens... we are blessed in our land because of our great leaders. It angers me to see the stupidity posted about us. You are welcome to talk to the citizens and millions of expatriates that call the United Arab Emirates home. Alhamdulillah for our beloved country and leaders.

[Sanjeev Kumar]

... And none of you guys have a proper information on your articles to say why it is called a spying app. They are only using permissions that any chat app would use. I have it on my phone and don't care the dumb articles you guys publish just following what the US government says. They did it on Huawei and continue doing this on many other countries.
Even if the government is spying according to you (US), I am not doing anything illegal against this great country, so why worry!?
I can clearly see what apps are accessing my storage and totok is not one of them. If you still say that this app can access my storage but the Android settings cannot capture then I would say it is a flaw with the operating system and not the app. So you guys should have the capacity to tell me how do you justify that the app is spying. Infact all my data is being handled by Google and Apple while this so has access to only the camera, microphone and contacts. In fact only Google and Apple may spy on me.
So if you guys want to have some sensational stories, do your own stories rather than not using your brain to think through whether what the US claims to be true. They just want to maintain their dominance.

[Arjun Krishna Lal]

Ma'am, I wrote this article. With all due respect, this was a news report based on official statements by the New York Times, Reuters, Google, Apple, and American intelligence officials, available on the public record.
I personally have the utmost respect for the UAE government and its leadership. And as a tech journalist, I personally hope that ToTok is not a malicious app. If you are convinced of the same and have evidence, I would urge you to first reach out to Google and Apple to have ToTok reinstated on their respective app stores.

The app is currently not available on either store, meaning users have to sideload it. Your help would be of immense service to people who use the app if it is indeed free of spyware.

The New York Times, in the article: "It Seemed Like a Popular Chat App. It's Secretly a Spy Tool" (dated 22nd December 2019) quoted American officials who verified the claims they made. The US government is, of course, a third-party entity in this matter. If you have evidence to the contrary, I urge you to take it up with the New York Times in the strongest terms and have that article redacted.

DarkMatter is a highly respected cybersecurity firm. If you have evidence that it does not work for the UAE government and that DarkMatter staff are not involved in spying on US citizens, I would urge you to reach out to Reuters to redact their article "Inside the UAE'S Secret Hacking Team of American Mercenaries" (dated 30th January 2019) and also to reach out to the Federal Bureau of Investigations to stop their ongoing investigation into DarkMatter.