iPhone developer Storm8 is facing a lawsuit for allegedly stealing the phone numbers of gamers playing its titles.

Seeking injunctive relief and damages, the data harvesting suit alleges that the iMobsters and Vampires Live studio exploited an "electronic backdoor" to learn players’ numbers, reports Boing Boing.

"Storm8 has written the software for all its games in such a way that it automatically accesses, collects, and transmits the wireless telephone number of each iPhone user who downloads any Storm8 game," the suit reads, adding that the practice is not authorised by Apple and involves the execution of "malicious software code".

The developer acknowledged the practice in August, referring to it as a “bug” and an “oversight”, but the suit claims: “Storm8 could not have accidentally harvested its users’ phone numbers - it used very specific and specialised software code to do so."