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Warning: That "free" UI kit I downloaded had hidden tracking code

I grabbed a free UI kit from a site I'd never used before last Tuesday for a quick client mockup. Seemed fine at first, lots of nice components. But when I ran it through a code cleaner before handing it off, I found 3 separate tracking scripts buried in the SVG files. One was even set to phone home every 30 minutes with user interaction data. I couldn't believe it, I've been downloading stuff for 5 years and never checked that deep before. The whole thing made me wonder what else lurks in those "free" assets everyone shares around here. Have any of you actually found something sketchy inside a dribbble file or a design pack?

2 comments

2 Comments

ray2105d ago

Yeah @betty_shah, the tracking was buried inside the SVG metadata tags and even hidden in some font files inside the pack... It wasn't just random script tags sitting out in the open. That's the scary part, most people wouldn't think to peek inside an image file for actual code.

betty_shah5d ago

Wait you mean the tracking was hidden in SVGs specifically not just random scripts?