Warning: Your dodgy Kodi addon could be spying on you

Kodi addons can be used to spy on users and gather information on whether or not they are watching illegal content, a project manager for Kodi has warned.

The add ons can collect information such as your IP address and viewing history without you knowing and send it back to law enforcement organisations and anti-piracy groups.

The warning comes after the domains for three popular Kodi addons, which were recently shutdown due to being the subject of legal action in the United States, were transferred to a Canadian law firm.

One of the domains was for TVAddons, which was believed to be the largest online library for Kodi addons at the time of its sudden closure in June.

It supplied links to more than 1,500 add ons showing illegal and legal content.

he fact the domains are now in the hands of a third party have sparked fears that information about users watching dodgy content is being collected and handed over to agencies involved in tackling online piracy.

Nathan Betzen, a project manager for Kodi told Torrent Freak that the domains could be used to deliver rogue updates to catch people who still try to use TVAddons in a bid to obtain information about usage.

“If some malware author wanted, he could easily install a watcher that reports back the user’s IP address and everything they were doing in Kodi,” Mr Betzen said.

“If the law firm is actually an anti-piracy group, that seems like the likeliest thing I can think of.”

While the law firm, DrapeauLex, who have obtained the domains have not revealed its plans, it remains to be seen how likely it would be for addons to be used to spy on Kodi users.

However, it does highlight the risks of relying on software updates for shady online services, especially if you don’t really know if the supplier of the update is a trusted source.