What is Neon? The app that pays users to record their phone calls.

Get paid to record your phone calls and hand them over to third parties? It may seem a bit dystopian, but this app has quickly risen to the top of the App Store charts.

Neon Mobile is a new app for iOS and Android devices that's quickly growing in popularity, at least according to the mobile app charts. On Apple's App Store, Neon is currently sitting at number 2 for free Social Networking apps and is in the number 4 position in the top rankings of all free apps in the App Store.

But, what is Neon and why are so many people downloading it? Here's what you need to know.

What is Neon?

It's simple: Neon records users' phone calls and then pays them for it.

Why does Neon want to record your phone calls? That's simple too: To collect your data to sell to third-parties. 

Neon is quite open about what they're using it for too. On Neon's website, the app makers say that they sell your anonymized data to "companies training AI." Neon says it removes all personal information so there's nothing identifiable being handed over to these AI companies.

Neon's pitch to users is also pretty straightforward. 

"Telecom companies are profiting off your data, and we think you deserve a cut," Neon's website says.

According to Neon, the app only records the Neon users' side of the call. The person that the Neon user calls is not recorded, unless they are also a Neon user too.

Neon pays users 15 cents per minute when they talk to a non-Neon user and pays 30 cents per minute when talking to another Neon user. Neon users can make a maximum of $30 per day from calls and an unlimited amount of money from referring people to Neon. Each referral pays $30.

To hit that $30 per day maximum for making calls, a user would need to talk to Neon users for 100 minutes per day or talk with non-Neon users for 200 minutes per day.

Is Neon legit?

Neon appears to have raised money from Upfront Ventures, according to Neon founder Alex Kiam. As TechCrunch points out, the company seems to be run out of a New York City apartment. This alone isn't a reason to be skeptical. Many startups have been run out of small living spaces before.

However, there are some red flags. Neon Mobile doesn't provide much information about the company on its website. In fact, Alex Kiam simply refers to himself as "Alex" on the site.

The company also simply promises to keep your private and identifiable information safe on a "trust us" basis. However, there's not many details surrounding Neon or their processes to keep that information anonymous that enables that trust.

The reviews for Neon on the App Store and Google Play store are also mixed, with users reporting problems using the app or receiving their payout. It's unclear, however, if those are issues being experienced by just a few individual users or if it's more widespread.

TechCrunch also noticed that Neon's privacy policy and terms has users giving away much more than they might have thought they were when signing up for the app. For example, Neon grants itself the following rights to your content:

…worldwide, exclusive, irrevocable, transferable, royalty-free, fully paid right and license (with the right to sublicense through multiple tiers) to sell, use, host, store, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform (including by means of a digital audio transmission), communicate to the public, reproduce, modify for the purpose of formatting for display, create derivative works as authorized in these Terms, and distribute your Recordings, in whole or in part, in any media formats and through any media channels, in each instance whether now known or hereafter developed.

Neon also carves out exceptions for its guarantees to users regarding any beta features due to the fact that they might contain bugs.

In addition, Neon is offering conflicting payout information. On the App Store, Neon's description claims that the company pays 45 cents per recording phone call minute and $25 per referral. This runs counter to the 30 cents per minute payment the $30 per referral as detailed on its website.

Users should proceed with caution regarding Neon until more is known about the company. And, even then, the company's purpose is to sell your recorded phone calls to companies for AI training. Users should consider if that's worth the price they're being paid.