The cryptocurrency mobile mining app could link to personal data leaks

Pi Network, a cryptocurrency mining app for mobile users, could have been included in the reduction of 17 GB of personal data, a Vietnamese news agency reported Monday.

According to the person who published it on May 13th from the Hacker-Hangout Raidforums, the pool of personal data appears to have been obtained from KYC or Know Your Customer, checks from users of the Pi Network.

For sale are identity cards of approximately 10,000 Vietnamese taxpayers in addition to home addresses, phone numbers and connected e-mail addresses. The seller put a price of $ 9,000 for the data, payable Bitcoin (BTC) or Litecoin (LTC).

Phien Vo, who runs a group chat channel for Pi Network Vietnam, told VnExpress that Pi Network’s KYC checks are being conducted by a third party, including that Vietnamese ID cards would be exactly the same as certificates. However, Vo pointed out that at one point an older variant of this app was compatible with those maps.

“To do the KYC verification on the Pi Network, Vietnamese have to use their passports. Only some users who have used previous versions of Pi can do KYC verification with their driver’s license, but so far the system has not accepted Vietnamese ID cards, ”Vo said.

The cybersecurity section of this Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security has opened an investigation into the situation.

An independent study to the perceived value of Pi Network was recently conducted by Cem Dilmegani, technology entrepreneur and creator of AIMultiple. The review, written a couple weeks before the latest data violation, concludes that Pi Network is bearing the sign of a tiered marketing program or affiliate marketing plan.

The Pi app is designed to require users to log in each day and click on a button to get their PI coins. The app does not utilize a blockchain consensus algorithm such as proof-of-work or proof-of-stake and consumers can raise the mining speed by referring others. The PI token wasn’t traded on exchanges and doesn’t have a dollar value.

The app supposedly sells data for advertising revenue from the moment it’s used. Given the fact that advertising space with personal user information could be sold for a higher value, many have speculated that the Pi app is solely used to obtain personally identifiable information from consumers. Cointelegraph has reached out to a Pi network spokesman for comment. This post will be upgraded if they reply.