Glassbox is an Israeli software company. It sells session-replay analytics software and services.

History

As of October 2018, Glassbox had raised US$32.5 million of capital funding. In exchange for investing in Glassbox, Washington, DC, equity firm Updata Partners was given two Glassbox board seats. In April 2020, Glassbox raised US$40 million in

series C A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the ...

funding. In October 2020, Glassbox acquired its rival SessionCam.

Privacy concerns

From at least as early as October 2018, Glassbox promoted its software as allowing its customers' websites or mobile apps to "see exactly what your customers do in real time". This prompted some

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

users to express privacy concerns about Glassbox's software. In February 2019, ''

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximat ...

'' reported that numerous popular applications in Apple's

iOS App Store The App Store is an app store platform, developed and maintained by Apple Inc., for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS Software De ...

used Glassbox software to record users' activities without the users' informed consent, which compromised users' privacy and contravened the rules of the iOS App Store. The affected apps included ones published by

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Expedia Expedia Inc. is an online travel agency owned by Expedia Group, an American online travel shopping company based in Seattle. The website and mobile app can be used to book airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruise ships, and ...

, Hollister,

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, and

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. In response,

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told app developers that if they continued to flout the rules of the iOS App Store, their apps would be removed from it. However, it was not clear whether Apple's request was heeded. Following ''TechCrunchs investigation, security researchers from Symantec's enterprise mobile threat division found 277 iOS apps and 291 Android apps that employed Glassbox software, including a number of banking and credit card apps, "putting a user's financial information at risk of exposure". Google, whose

Play Store Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating sys ...

is the Android counterpart of the iOS App Store, did not comment on whether it would expect Android app developers to remove session-replay functionality. Anti-malware company

Avast Avast Software s.r.o. is a Czech multinational cybersecurity software company headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic that researches and develops computer security software, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Avast has more than ...

observed that using session-replay analytics "without even mentioning it is not right, and probably illegal in some countries." Computer science professor Thomas Keenan, author of the book '' Technocreep'', suggested that people who do not want a company to record their data like this should delete the app concerned. ''IT Pro'' reported that Glassbox retains session, demographic, and location data for up to 24 months, categorizing it by age, gender, and interests, and may combine it with other information obtained from other companies.

References

{{Reflist 2019 in computing Companies based in Petah Tikva Digital marketing companies of Israel Israeli companies established in 2010 Mobile software Privacy controversies and disputes Privately held companies of Israel Spyware