Worrying issues have been discovered in Google’s messaging app, Allo.

It has been found to be capable of sharing users’ past Google searches with contacts, without being prompted to.

The discovery was made by Re/code’s Tess Townsend, who was using Allo to chat to a friend.

Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women Show all 13 1 /13 Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women Ida Wells An African-American journalist and activist born in Mississippi in 1862, she wrote prolifically on the fight for women’s suffrage as well as the struggle for civil rights. She documented the practice of lynching black people in the southern states showing how it was often used as means of controlling or punishing black people who competed with whites rather than as a means of “justice” for crimes. Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women Lotifa El Nadi Egypt’s first female pilot born in 1907 in Cairo. 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After becoming hugely successful in the US and winning a Grammy, she became involved in the civil rights struggle stateside as well as in the campaign against apartheid in her home country, writing political songs. Upon her death, South African President Nelson Mandela said that “her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us.” Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women Sally Ride An American astronaut and physicist, she was born in Los Angeles in 1951 and joined NASA in 1978 after gaining her PhD. She became the first American woman and the third woman ever to go into space in 1983 at the age of 32. Prior to her first space flight, she attracted attention because of her gender and at press conferences, was asked questions such as, “Will the flight affect your reproductive organs?” She later worked as an academic at the University of California, San Diego. 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The harassment she experienced at medical school helped make her a militant advocate for women’s rights in Argentina. Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women Lee Tai-young Korea’s first female lawyer and judge born in 1914 in what is now North Korea, she was also an activist who founded the country’s first legal aid centre and fought for women’s rights throughout her career. Her often mentioned refrain was, “No society can or will prosper without the cooperation of women.” She worked as a teacher, married and had four children before she was able to begin her legal career after the Second World War, becoming the first woman to enter Seoul National University. She also fought for civil rights in the country and was arrested in 1977 for her beliefs, receiving a three-year suspended sentence and a ten year disbarment. 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“In the middle of our conversation, my friend directed Assistant to identify itself,” wrote Ms Townsend. “Instead of offering a name or a pithy retort, it responded with a link from Harry Potter fan website Pottermore.”

Neither Ms Townsend or her friend had mentioned Harry Potter in their conversation before Allo brought it up.

“But the response was not merely a non sequitur,” continues Ms Townsend. “It was a result related to previous searches my friend said he had done a few days earlier.”

Google responded by saying, “We were notified about the Assistant in group chats not working as intended. We've fixed the issue and appreciate the report.”

However, Allo exhibited further strange behaviour when Ms Townsend proceeded to ask the Google Assistant “What is my job?”

It shared a Google Maps image with the address of a co-working space she used to work at, and not the publicly listed address of her previous employer.

“Google had the address on file because I had included it in my personal Google Maps settings,” wrote Ms Townsend. “It did not ask my permission to share that.”

Google Assistant is supposed to request permission from a user before sharing personal information in an Allo chat, but the privacy feature doesn’t appear to always work.

Edward Snowden issued a warning about Allo after its launch last year.

“What is #Allo?” he tweeted. “A Google app that records every message you ever send and makes it available to police upon request.”

Google says collecting data makes Allo more useful – the better and more information it has, the better and more helpful the suggestions will be.