You wouldn’t believe it even if you are not a loyal Airtel user. We were not expecting such behaviour from Airtel either, but the truth is truth. Airtel is now being accused of secretly injecting Javascripts, and iframes into the web browser and is trying to alter the browsing experience.
We are not sure if Airtel is doing it deliberately or it is due to some technical glitch. It might also happen if the user who reported this anomaly was using some kind of proxy while using Airtel 3G and the scripts were inserted as some kind of web optimizations. But according to Thejesh GN, an InfoActivist and programmer, Airtel is inserting javascripts into user browsing sessions. Check out these screenshots shared by him.
We are not sure if Airtel is doing it deliberately or it is due to some technical glitch. It might also happen if the user who reported this anomaly was using some kind of proxy while using Airtel 3G and the scripts were inserted as some kind of web optimizations. But according to Thejesh GN, an InfoActivist and programmer, Airtel is inserting javascripts into user browsing sessions. Check out these screenshots shared by him.
As reported on the GitHub thread, the inserted iframe tries to insert a toolbar into the browsing session.
It is worth noting the parent URL of both the iframe and the javascript (223.224.131.144) belongs to Bharti Airtel, Bangalore. As per the GitHub thread that URL leads to the following webpage of Flash Networks, but it gave us a 404 when we tried to open it.
We were certainly not expecting an ISP like Airtel to come to this for collecting user data from the browser. Getting user data is like hitting a gold mine these days. Internet companies, ad companies, and intelligence agencies are willing to pay any price for getting such personal info.
If it is proved that Airtel is doing this purposely then it can soon land up in the court of law.
PS: Airtel has already been condemned nation-wide for violating net neutrality via its Airtel Zero platform, and it certainly won’t be in the best interest of the company to do such a malicious thing.
We have contacted Airtel for a word about this and we’ll update the post as soon as they give some clarification.
[Updated]
It looks like even Vodafone has been accused of doing the same. One of our readers, Dayson Pais pointed us out on Facebook that Vodafone does this when user is connected through USB dongle. He also showed us a screenshot of the same. here it is.
The encircled script is essentially inserted when users browse through their USB dongle. Vodafone around the globe has been accused of doing so, You can check this, this, this and this
If Vodafone and Airtel are doing it, chances are that other telecom operators may be doing the same. If you come across something like this with your mobile operator, do let us know.
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