Are my family and I safe now?

[Sarah]

As some of you might have heard, there's this creepy iPhone app called Talking Angela, who is Talking Tom's girlfriend. It asks you really personal questions like where you live, do you have guard dogs, where do your dogs sleep ect, inappropriate sentences (it's told children to slip into a coma) and more. Some people have been burgled from giving out too much info. It also takes secret pictures and videos of you. DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS APP. ITS REALLY DANGEROUS FOR ADULTS AND CHILDREN. PLEASE DON'T!! (its being investigated by the police, I hope it gets removed and the culprits are found asap, dirty perverts!!

So, I went on it on Facebook to see if it'd say anything. I didn't say anything like where I lived and stuff. I don't have a webcam so it couldn't take any secret videos or pictures. It asked me how old I was but I just said "ok" to pass it. I deleted, blocked and reported the app, but can they track my ip address or something? I'm really scared, worried and paranoid. Thank you

[Yumi]

Yes they can track your IP, with this they can get info on your location, your internet provider and phone number. You might want to lock your doors and cover your windows at all times. Have 911 on speed dial and don't answer the door to anyone unless you are positive who it is.

Check the link for further info on the situation

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2013/02/...app-scare/

[Posie]

"Talking Angela" is not a web site, but an iOS app available through iTunes that provides a cute interactive feature for youngsters: when children activate the app and respond to prompts to interact with it, Angela, a cat who inhabits an outdoor table at a Parisian cafe, responds to their gestures and mimics what they say back to them in her French-influenced stylings.

As noted at Sophos' Naked Security site, however, warnings that the Talking Angela app are prompting children to behave in ways that raise privacy concerns are unfounded — "Talking Angela" is just another entry in a series of similar harmless apps for kids created by the same developer:

The truth is that "Talking Angela" appears to be entirely benign, and there are no obvious privacy concerns that differentiate it from thousands of other iPhone apps.

Indeed, the "Talking Angela" app is no different from other similar popular children's apps from reputable iOS developer Out Fit 7 Ltd, including "Talking Tom Cat", "Talking Ben the Dog" and "Talking Gina the Giraffe".

"We wish to emphasise that no personal data whatsoever is being collected from the users of our app Talking Angela, which is available as an iOS, Android and Facebook app.

The description clearly informs the user that one of the core functionalities of the app is chat, which requires two-way communication, where Angela (a chat bot, not a real person) answers with text and voice in English and talks to the user about a variety of subjects.

The data collected by the app from the user is not shared with anyone and is actually sent to Out Fit7 only in the form of an anonymized data log (no names, no numbers, no personal data). This fact is clearly disclosed within the description of the app.

The screenshots within the description clearly show that the app enables the user to take a picture of himself/herself and share those pictures to social media services like Facebook or Twitter. This is only done if the user wants to do it and the photos are not sent anywhere else." - Out Fit7

[Stary]

The app is safe. People enjoy spreading false rumors.

http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/angela.asp

[Christie]

It actually didn't say anything inappropriate to me, and actually, if I tried to talk about something inapporopriate, she wouldn't let me.

I'd asked her what my name and age is and she replied the fake name and age that I gave her, so she doesn't actually no my real information.

She couldnt' see me since I covered the camera and I asked her what colour my hair was and she got it wrong.

[Alexis Styles]

IT IS SAFE!CHECK THE PHOTO THAT I HAVE: