Motorola Is Listening 287
New submitter pbritt writes "Ben Lincoln was hooking up to Microsoft ActiveSync at work when he 'made an interesting discovery about the Android phone (a Motorola Droid X2) which [he] was using at the time: it was silently sending a considerable amount of sensitive information to Motorola, and to compound the problem, a great deal of it was over an unencrypted HTTP channel.' He found that photos, passwords, and even data about his home screen config were being sent regularly to Motorola's servers. He has screenshots showing much of the data transmission."
Sad, but also not surprising (Score:5, Insightful)
It is owned by Google (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Sad, but also not surprising (Score:3, Insightful)
"It seems every device, every internet service, basically every communication node that we use has been turned into something that is beyond George Orwell's worst nightmare."
Yes, if you use commercial easy to use toasters like a phone with stock android, iOS, Windows, OSX, etc on it... You are correct.
If you want privacy and control. Run linix or one of the hacked and cleaned Android releases.
#1 reason to use Android (Score:5, Insightful)
You can RELOAD the device's OS with custom ROMs that don't do this crap. If it was discovered Apple does this (and who's to say they don't) what choice have you? And Windows phone? Don't even start.
Part of the reality of "security" is taking responsibility for your own. Security is not a product you can buy. It's not something that other people can do for you (because that's tyranny). It's a personal responsibility and it takes knowledge and understanding to do. Tough luck to all those people who have neither the inclination nor the ability to learn.
Re:How is this even legal? (Score:4, Insightful)
How about this [cornell.edu]?
They've gone way beyond authorized access, and are collecting information they have no business accessing.
But somehow those EULAs magically give them the legal right to do anything they want to.
Numbers say they don't (Score:5, Insightful)
If it was discovered Apple does this (and who's to say they don't)
We know they don't because there are many hundreds of millions of people using Apple devices now, and lots of developers using network proxy monitoring tools in development that see all network traffic from the devices to boot.
Basically if Apple were doing this we would have known long ago, and there would be no shortage of people to shout about it continuously on Slashdot and elsewhere.
Why do they keep trying to "social " us? (Score:5, Insightful)
What is this crap, and why do they always get it wrong?
Yes, I do want to seamlessly sync my mail, sms and contacts across my devices.
Except none of the solutions proposed really do that well...
(Or maybe I'm not typical, having multiple PCs and mobile devices, including iOS and Android?)
Photos too? Hell, why not. Picasa from Google used to be OK...
But now, after the "success" of FB, it seems that you can't have simple sync solution anymore; everybody is pushing unwanted, privacy-leaking, "social" features down our throats.
Just please fucking stop!
Re:Don't you know... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sigh.... they makes me more disappointed than mad, and reminds me of the phrase "The road to hell is paved with good intentions".
They want easy sync, they want it so they can restore user data and save people's bacon whose phone gets destroyed or lost. Awesome, great intention. However, http? No SSL? Come on guys! At LEAST encrypt the data in flight!
In reality, they should encrypt it at rest too, and have the user at least submit some sort of password or something so its not just.... gobs of juicy data waiting to be sniffed or scooped. Realistically this means everyone who had one of these phones, with few exceptions, have their data, out of their control, just waiting to be abused.
Re:Nonono, beware the evil chinese (Score:5, Insightful)
These are not the droids you are looking for... Look at the Chinese! Look at the evil Chinese! They're spying on us!
Well, of course they are. But look at it this way:
When the Chinese spy on you, what can they do to you based on the data it gathers?
When the your own government spies on you, what can it do to you based on the data it gathers?
Somehow, I feel safer sending my data to the Chinese...
Re: It is owned by Google (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes.
Re:#1 reason to use Android (Score:5, Insightful)
Part of the reality of "security" is taking responsibility for your own.
The only way to get real security and privacy with a cell phone is not to have one. A bonus is that implementation of that strategy requires no special technical knowledge.
Re:Don't you know... (Score:4, Insightful)
You could try reading the article.
It does appear to be part of Blur, yes.
Only the X2 was not sold as a phone with Blur, it does not have the obvious UI elements. And the author never explicitly signed up for the Blur service or created an account. The phone appears to have silently created a Blur account for him and proceeded to send a bunch of private information to the service, all without his knowledge or consent. How helpful.
Re:Sad, but also not surprising (Score:5, Insightful)
So you've manually inspected the binaries from cyanogen to confirm that every release they make is 'safe'?
Instead of blindly trusting your manufacturer, you're blindly trusting a modder.
Not really sure why you think its different.
Re:Don't you know... (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree it should be an option, but I can sympathize with companies not wanting to deal with that expletive. People who do stupid things rarely blame themselves, but they are happy to blame others loudly in public where it can hurt your brand.
Re:#1 reason to use Android (Score:5, Insightful)
You can RELOAD the device's OS with custom ROMs that don't do this crap. If it was discovered Apple does this (and who's to say they don't) what choice have you? And Windows phone? Don't even start.
So there is a massive _actual_ privacy violation by Google (who owns Motorola and is 100% responsible for anything that happens under the name Motorola), and you complain about what-ifs with Apple and Microsoft?
Remember that Google's customers are the advertisers. Apple's customers are people buying Apple devices. I expect both Google and Apple to do what is good for their customers, even if it hurts others (like _you_ in the case of Google, and advertisers in the case of Apple).
Re:Numbers say they don't (Score:1, Insightful)
God damnit, harrar. I'm really not trying to stock your chicken-hating ass, but I go to reply to a dumbass post and it's coincidentally you.
Even if the data were encrypted, the "proxy monitoring" software mentioned by the person you were replying to would still see encrypted traffic being sent to a specific IP address. You can't encrypt the IP address or the packets wouldn't get routed.
You're the stupidest and most vocal fucktard on this site. And I"m pretty sure BitzStream is one of your sockpuppet accounts.
Cluck a doodledo motherfucker.