Android Phone? Hello Big Brother!

[Bigdawg]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/rootkit-brouhaha/

Carrier IQ was virtually unknown until the 25-year-old Eckhart analyzed its workings, recently revealing that the software secretly chronicles a user’s phone experience, from its apps, battery life and texts.

And gee... nobody knows who put it there - the carriers say it was the manufacturers - and the manufacturers are pointing the finger right back. Welcome to the new world.

 

[genericname]

Similar programs were found in both Blackberry and iOS phones. The problem really does lie in the hands of the carrier. The only reason they found this one is because Android is an open-ended enough platform to tear apart and inspect.

It does make you wonder though. To think, they could install this crap, and track every single action you've made with the phone, and somehow nobody goes to jail.

 

[Locals Find!]

You might want to check this article out too. I just found it after reading your very scary article.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygre...ve-violated-wiretap-law-in-millions-of-cases/

 

[genericname]

Another good reason to root your phone. Also, drop Sprint.

 

[The Vector Doctor]

If someone sues, lawyers will get rich, and the users will all get a lousy $10 gift card to buy some accessory from their respective phone service

 

[Alti-Plotter]

Very interesting, thank you for posting.

 

[Signs 365]

Makes you wonder what other daily use devices we have are reporting our every action back to the manufacturer. If I can start, lock/unlock, check mileage, oil life, and fuel economy from an app on my phone for my car....what are they sending back to the car maker? There is a microphone in my car for onstar....they know where I am at all times...maybe they know what conversations Im having in the car too. And on the point of phones, Siri on the new iPhone4S sends what you asked it through an apple server...that means your voice data is collected somewhere. Scary

 

[Mike F]

Misleading title, but yea, makes me glad I still have a "dumbphone".

 

[rfulford]

This really makes me wonder. I received a new Android through my company on the 22nd of November. I enter the google id and password into the phone that I have had for nearly 6 years. On the 26th, spam emails start going out from my gmail account to my contacts list. I have not had a problem with my google account like this ever. I rarely use it for for email and mostly just use google docs. Can really be just a coincidence?

 

[Tifosi]

I don't have anything to hide so I could care less.

That being said, as long as my passwords and any credit info is encrypted or left out is all that really matters to me. Someone would be pretty board reading my texts to my wife on who is picking up the kids.

On a side note, OnStar is tracking and selling your data now. They are using it for marketing. Talk about spam just waiting to happen. Just wait until it is used to issue speeding tickets.

 

[genericname]

I don't have anything to hide so I could care less.

So it's okay when a corporation does it, but when law enforcement does it, it's a violation of your rights? I really don't want this to be an argument, but that's crazy talk. We should all have a certain expectation of privacy, and we're allowing those expectations to be slowly eroded.

 

[tanneji]

thats one of the many reasons i use windows phone having actual ms office on my phone doesnt hurt either haha

 

[genericname]

thats one of the many reasons i use windows phone having actual ms office on my phone doesnt hurt either haha

*cough*

"The new release includes claims that surveillance companies can use your iPhone, BlackBerry or Windows smartphone to take pictures of you, and harvest data such as your location and recordings of your conversations - even when the phone is in standby mode, The Register reports."

 

[Kevin-shopVOX]

and we're allowing those expectations to be slowly eroded.

Allowing it and not being told as in the Carrier IQ instance are two different scenarios.

 

[genericname]

Allowing it and not being told as in the Carrier IQ instance are two different scenarios.

Absolutely! What I meant though, is that we are gradually acclimatizing ourselves to these kind of intrusions, to the point of us brushing them off as a part of every day life. The real problem with this is that our privacy laws (both in the US and Canada) are based on what we deem, as a people, acceptable behaviour. If the status quo is okay with corporations tracking their every breath, then the privacy laws adapt to allow that as the boundary.

I'm not a believer in the slippery slope argument for most things, but this is one that has active participants; companies who want your info, that have been taking pot shots for years, just making us complacent through the sheer subversiveness and tenacity of their actions.

Information is a commodity now, and as such, our personal information should fall under unlawful search and seizure laws.

 

[Bigdawg]

I don't have anything to hide so I could care less.

That being said, as long as my passwords and any credit info is encrypted or left out is all that really matters to me. Someone would be pretty board reading my texts to my wife on who is picking up the kids.

On a side note, OnStar is tracking and selling your data now. They are using it for marketing. Talk about spam just waiting to happen. Just wait until it is used to issue speeding tickets.

But with OnStar you were told about it... and could opt out. With this is was an accident it was found. CarrierIQ logs each keystroke - passwords and CC info included.

I have no problem with those that AGREE to let yourself be tracked that closely... but a third-party company I never heard of until now has access to every login, password, cc number, etc that was encrypted when I sent it over the internet... but was logged on my own personal phone keystroke by keystroke and saved and sent who-knows where.

Totally unacceptable but probably happening more than we care to admit.

 

[signswi]

Privacy is essentially an obsolete concept under current law and becomes more so every day. The (very few) senators who attempt to get a handle on the situation do so inconsistently and without much success. The big business lobby tends to outspend any grass roots efforts to protect individual privacy.

I know politics are banned but this is an inherently political topic so I'll stop there. Join the EFF.

 

[genericname]

Totally unacceptable but probably happening more than we care to admit.

Here's a start.

Little overly dramatic in its presentation, as I think it's trying to hard to look like a '90s "hacker" friendly page, but it's a visual index of companies and organizations implicated in the latest Wikileaks spyware documents.

 

[tanneji]

*cough*

"The new release includes claims that surveillance companies can use your iPhone, BlackBerry or Windows smartphone to take pictures of you, and harvest data such as your location and recordings of your conversations - even when the phone is in standby mode, The Register reports."

*cough* go be snarky elsewhere
http://www.wpcentral.com/microsofts-joe-belfiore-confirms-no-carrier-iq-software-windows-phones

 

[genericname]

*cough* go be snarky elsewhere
http://www.wpcentral.com/microsofts-joe-belfiore-confirms-no-carrier-iq-software-windows-phones

It doesn't have to be Carrier IQ. That's the point. You think that's the only software ever developed with this purpose in mind? Even if every Windows phone on the planet is free of the software, there are a multitude of other methods for collecting information that would have been historically considered illegal, but are tolerated now. "I don't have anything to hide" is all well and good, until you've got a boot on your door. Your constitution was designed to keep this very kind of thing from happening.