iPhone Developer Accused of Using Games to Harvest Phone Numbers

At the risk of making this story sound like one of those annoying local advertisements for personal injury attorneys, here it is: If you or someone you love recently purchased and played an iPhone game from developer Storm8, such as iMobsters or Vampires Live , it appears your phone number may have been collected without your consent. Or, at least, that's what Lynnwood, WA resident Michael Turner is accusing the company of doing in a class action lawsuit he recently filed ( BoingBoing , via Joystiq ). According to the lawsuit, Storm8 is accused of exploiting an "electronic backdoor" with the use of "malicious software code" in their games to collect phone numbers without the iPhone owners knowing, and without the authorization of Apple. "Storm8 has written the software for all its games in such a way that it automatically accesses, collects, and transmits the wireless telephone number of each iPhone user who downloads any ... (link)