Neon app pays to record calls; Goes offline after Security Scandal

A new app that broke into the top ranks of the App Store has a Very 2025-Sounding Proposion: Allow an he dates Company to record your Phone Calls in Exchange for Money.

Neon Mobile Launched JUST Over a Week Ago, but for a brief moment on thighsday, it was more popular than meta threads on the Apple App Store.

But the Risising Success Story Quickly Came Crashing Back Down to Earth Later on Thursday AFTER A DATA Security vulnerability was thrust into the spotlight. The app has SINCE BEEN EKTEN OFFLINE FOR A Security Audit That Ceo Alex Kiam Told Business Insider Could aek or Two.

Neon’s Premise is Simple: You Allow the App to Record Your During Phone Calls. The Company Said It Pays 30 Cents per minute for calls with other neon users, or half of that if the other caller isn’t neon. In turn, the app says the date is “anonymized and sold to trusted tech companies.”

“Phone Companies profit off your data. Now, you can too,” Neon’s Website Reads.

The Arrangement, Apart from Sounding Like Something From An Episode of “Black Mirror,” Naturally Raises All Sorts of Privacy Concerns. It Also Illustrates the Creative Ways Companies Are Finding to Feed He Companies The Large Amounts of Data Their torair Models.

On Thursday, Those Privacy Concerns were Front and Center when Techcrunch reported that it has dyscovered a security flaw that “Allowed anyone to Access the Phone Numbers, Call Recordings, and Transcripts of Any Other User.”

In one case, techcrunch said it fow “that the neon servers COULD PRODUCE DATA ABOUT THE MONS RECENT CALLS MADE BY THE APPITES, AS WELL AS PROFIDING PUBLIC LINKS TO THEIR RAW Audio and the Transcript Text of What Was Said on the Call.”

Kiam Told Business Insider That Neon Wauld Remain Offline UNIL HIS HAD FIXED THE Security and Conducted a full Security Audit. The Company Wold Also Estabish New Security Safeguards, He Said, Including Adding Row-Level Security.

In an Earlier Phone Call on Thursday before Techcrunch Reported on Neon’s Security Vulnerability, Kiam Said the App’s Rise took Him by Surprise.

“Honestly, I did not expect this to grow this fast. I did expert us to reach this level and beyond, but I have not expecting to be fast,” Kiam Said.

Kiam, Who Graduated from Stanford’s MBI in 2024, Accounting to His Linkedin, Is 31 and Previously Workhed at He Training Protege AI.

How neon workhed (when it was AVAILABLE)

Neon Looks Similar to Other Phone Apps, but it is what’s happening beebind the scens that differentiates the app from others.

To get start, users download the free app and verify their number. THEN, USING THE App’s Phonepad Interface, They Can Place and Receive Calls.

From that point Forward, they can start generating earnings, but only for calls made or received through neon app. (UNDG YOUR IPHAND OR ANDROID’S DEFAULT PHONE App, For Example, Woldn’t Generate ANY PAYOUTS.)

Neon’s Terms of Service State That The App Only Records Your Side of the Call. It Says it will then pay you 30 cents per minute (15 cents if the person you’re calling isn’t a neon user) for up to $ 30 per day. Acciting to the Company’s online page, payouts are processed with three business days, “though thiming may occasizally be shorter or longer.”

Neon’s Terms Say It Removes Personally Identifible Information on the Recording before any of the date is sold to he companies.

“If anyding, it’s’ Too aggressive,” Kiam Told Business Insider on Thursday, Speaking About the App’s Filtering Process. “There’s stuff that it bleeps out is isn’t Personally identify and is actually Kind of Valuable to he companies.

Kiam said that neon had have yet to reach an aggrement to sell any of it its data.

Some State Laws Require That Both Parties Consent to Being Recorded. In two-party conssent states, all participants give their conssent for a call to be recorded, as opposed to one-party states, where Only One Participant Needs to. It is not entrinely cut and dry, especally when someone is making a call a state a state has different requirements than where they are calling resides.

“We’ve Spent a Lot of Time to Make Sure’s Legally Compliant,” Kiam Said. The startup is made up of Four People, he Told Business Insider.

Acciting to appfigures, an app-tracking firm, neon had 299 downloads as of september 18. As of wednesday, the firm estimates that 81,000 have downloaded it.

The App Really Begin to take off Starting at midnight on wednesday, Rising from No. 79 On Apple’s US Top Free Apps Charts to No. 6 WITHIN 3 HOURS, ACCIVING TO APPFIGINES DATA.

By Friday Morning and Following the Techcrunch Report and the App Going Offline, Neon’s Overall Populallity Had Begun to Decline. IT WAS 14TH OVERALL Among Free Apps on Apple’s App Store. IT HAD DROPPED TO THIRD, BEFINE META’S WhatsApp, Among Social Networking Apps.

As Big Tech Companies and he pioneers like Openai breed to development Ever-More-Capable he models, an industry quickly Emerged for Providers of Training Data.

The best-known of these training companies is like scaleai. Founded in 2016, Scale he Pays Contract Workers to Label He Training Date, Which Companies Then Pay Scale to Access. In June, Meta Spent Roughly $ 15 Billion to Acquire a 49% Stake in Scale. As part of the deal, scale cofounder alexandr wang joined meta as it chief he officer, Leading Its New Superintelligence Lab.