Well, wait until you hear how bad it really is.

It can use this tech toinject malware into your phoneand provide the data to government agencies.

You should probably think about using an ad blocker.

Someone looking at an online ad on their laptop with an ad for the same on their smartphone.

Online Advertising.wera Rodsawang / Getty Images

Real-time bidding is like an auction for the ad spaces in your web surfing app or other apps.

Say you’re selling a rugged, humidity-proof USB-C cable.

But this can be exploited.

Person holding a smartphone with the app screen displayed.

iPhone App Screen.Yura Fresh / Unsplash

This is all done using the standard tools of ad companies like Google.

Then, you could sell this data to interested parties, e.g., governments.

Patternz certainly isn’t the only company doing this.

Closeup on a laptop computer screen with “Block Ads” displayed on the screen.

Ad Blocker.AndreyPopov / Getty Images

According to a Bloomberg report from May 2023, aTel Aviv-based company named Rayzonedoes much the same thing.

Patternz actually boasted about a lot of these capabilities in its promotional literature.

That information has since been removed from its public site but ispreserved at the Internet Archive.

Yura Fresh / Unsplash

And there’s more.

Apps cannot run in the background on iOS, but there is a loophole.

Bad apps use this tiny window to exfiltrate data.

The Fix

So, what can you do to protect yourself from this insane privacy invasion?

AndreyPopov / Getty Images

I askedShawn Loveland, COO of cybersecurity companyResecurity, if blocking ads is enough.

“It is a good measure.

The other important practice is to vet the apps you install.

If that’s not possible, do a web search on both the app and the developer.

Check out their website and social media.