Neon Mobile paid users for call recordings, breach exposed user data

A new app that paid users to record and sell their phone calls to companies training artificial intelligence models surged up Apple’s U.S. App Store charts this month and was taken offline this week after security researchers said a vulnerability exposed users’ recordings, transcripts and phone numbers. Neon Mobile rose rapidly from the lower reaches of the social networking chart in mid September to a top position this week, promising users small per-minute payments in exchange for access to their call audio and related metadata.

Neon advertises that it pays users for recorded calls, offering per-minute rates that the company’s marketing and terms materials describe as 15 cents per minute rising to 30 cents when calling other Neon users, plus daily caps and referral bonuses. In promotional language the company says AI firms profit from user data and that consenting users should receive a share. Neon also states it removes names, emails and phone numbers from recordings before selling anonymized audio to buyers, and that only a Neon user’s side of a call is recorded unless both parties use the app.

Security researchers who tested the app reported a far different risk. They said...