App hacked

[Stephen1838]

My app had Chinese writing on the app icon. 

When I opened it it asked me to sign a new disclosure agreement which would allow my information to be shared with China. 

I deleted the app from my phone. 

What else should I do?

[Andy-and-Janine0]

I also have this issue - I have a Huawei phone.  We need advice ASAP about what to about this and if our data is under threat.

[Till-and-Jutta0]

Message from Airbnb: The engineer team mentioned that they have removed the App from the AppGallery. The Hosts should uninstall that App version, and download the App from Google Play or other third-party app stores.

[Till-and-Jutta0]

I would like to know from those who had been affected by this issue:

Does reinstalling the App from a non-AppGallery help?

I have one member in our groups who followed Airbnb's suggestion - but it still appears in Chinese.

What about the others?

[Luka531]

I have a Huawei phone and it happened to me, I de- installed it and installed again from Google Play, as I always do. It happened again. 

[Joelle43]

Hello @Till-and-Jutta0 

Hosts on the French CC are also having the same problem and told them about your solution and initially a host replied that they tried that to no effect.  Wrote back a bit later and said that this time she shut down her phone completely, reinstalled and then it worked!

[Till-and-Jutta0]

Thanks for your feedback, @Joelle43 ! I will forward this info to our groups.

[Till-and-Jutta0]

(Update from Airbnb)

The Engineering Team has provided more information regarding this situation:

• The Engineering team recommends that the Users unistall that App version (half Airbnb logo, half blue logo) from their devices.
• After, the Users should only use the version that is available in Google Play Store, as this is where we upload the App.
• Users should be advised that downloading an App from any other website may contain malicious malware.
• For Users that have the newest Huawei devices, and cannot access Google Play Store, we encourage them to use our website on their mobile device.

We apologize for any inconvenience, but we were working with the team in order to provide the best assistance possible in this situation.

[Lea3220]

Still comes back with Chinese symbols. Even when uninstalled . And installed again on the Google play .

[Till-and-Jutta0]

@Lea3220 Did you restart before re-installation?

Heard, this would help.

[Quincy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Stephen1838 and everyone else on this thread @Joelle43 @Till-and-Jutta0 @Luka531 @Lea3220,

Thank you all so much for sharing this, and for your patience as the team worked on this issue. We are pleased to share that this has now been resolved - you can return your app icon to its normal state by uninstalling the app from your device and downloading it again from the GooglePlay Store.  

If your device does not have access to the GooglePlay Store, we advise you to use the Airbnb platform via your chosen device web browser, or a desktop machine.

Many thanks,

Quincy 

[Simon4694]

Hi @Quincy ,

Thanks for the quick action. One important unanswered question though...

Is our data safe? Seems like a pretty big deal that Airbnb had no idea what was going on for at least 12 hours... 

I have bookings from months ago so can't remove my paypal account... is this safe?

And what about those who used the compromised app?

This is a pretty big deal...

[Mie3130]

I am too very concerned as the same incident occurred on my phone. After the Airbnb icon was changed to English from Chinese, my Bing app also changed to Chinese and remains that way. This is very disturbing – and I am pretty sure this is related to the AirBnb incident!

Please let us know if there has been any hacking, compromised apps, or anything we as users should be worried about. This is concerning, and it would be reassuring to understand what steps are being taken to ensure our data's safety and what precautions we should take moving forward.

[Ed333]

Can I ask what happened? I don't massively trust that it won't happen again, given my handset.