A second VidMate spokesperson later contacted Buzzfeed News by email to repeat much of what Chen said, while also questioning Upstream’s methodology and findings. That VidMate spokesperson’s email account used the name Alice Granger, which is also the username of a Twitter account that sent thousands of spam replies to people in 2015 suggesting they download VidMate. Granger did not reply to follow-up questions about the Twitter account, or ones that asked for the names of Nemo Fish/VidMate executives and funders. Though it’s unclear exactly who owns and operates VidMate now, Krief said his company began blocking suspicious transactions from VidMate long before UCWeb sold the app. “We saw some first small volumes of suspicious transaction requests in October 2017 and it progressively ramped up until April 2018 when it then started being at a different scale,” he said. The UCWeb spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the company can’t respond without seeing more details and data. “To date, Upstream has not contacted us or supplied us with the information upon which they are making their claims.

“Overall, UC always seeks to provide a safe, secure and enjoyable user experience and has stringent rules and regulations in place to ensure that is the case.” On that basis, it is impossible for us to evaluate their assumptions,” the statement said. These findings are yet another example of a Chinese app allegedly committing ad fraud and abusing user permissions and data at a global scale.

Vidmate 2015