Your Phone Can Be Snooped On Using Its Gyroscope 96
stephendavion (2872091) writes Researchers will demonstrate the process used to spy on smartphones using gyroscopes at Usenix Security event on August 22, 2014. Researchers from Stanford and a defense research group at Rafael will demonstrate a way to spy on smartphones using gyroscopes at Usenix Security event on August 22, 2014. According to the "Gyrophone: Recognizing Speech From Gyroscope Signals" study, the gyroscopes integrated into smartphones were sensitive enough to enable some sound waves to be picked up, transforming them into crude microphones.
Cutting edge news? (Score:0, Insightful)
That's modern /. for you. They should change the motto to "Week Old News for Nerds".
Re:I give up... (Score:5, Insightful)
Can we just succumb to the inevitable and work on building a list of the parts of a smartphone that can't be used to spy on you? I'm thinking 'maybe the battery door'. Any other suggestions?
What's the point of securing any smartphone when all of your activity on the device is captured elsewhere and sold for profit? They don't just count how many times you play your songs. They count how many times you text during the day. They count how many times you click on icons. They count how many seconds you hover over app icons even when you don't buy them in order to market apps catered to your "maybe" whims. Yes, they do this shit. No, it's not called crazy, it's called statistical analysis to the nth degree in order to maximize profits.
The phone is merely the vehicle. What that vehicle can do all depends on the driver. Unfortunately, we've all been thrown in the back of a telco cab and the driver was told to get lost years ago.
Phone permissions suck (Score:3, Insightful)
Every app seems to want access to your full memory, location info, camera, microphone and contact list. Why does a flashlight app need all this?
I carry a phone because I have to for work, and I need something to read while on the crapper, and that's it. People who use all these fancy apps are the product, not the customer.