North Korea's Android Tablet Takes a Screenshot Every Time You Open an App (vice.com) 85
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: When you think of North Korea, the first thing that springs to mind is probably not a well-featured tablet PC. But that's just what researchers at the Chaos Communication Congress hacking festival revealed on Tuesday. Called Woolim, this tablet is designed to limit the distribution of contraband media, track its users, and generally act as a propaganda platform for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Woolim is a small, white Android device that looks like a fairly standard tablet. The hardware itself is made by Chinese manufacturer Hoozo, but the North Korean government has removed some components such as those for wi-fi and bluetooth, and put its own bespoke software on top. After the researchers presented work covering RedStar OS, North Korea's Linux-based operating system, a South Korean NGO offered the tablet to the group. Woolim is just one of several tablets designed for North Korea, but Woolim appears to be the most recent, likely dating from 2015. The tablet has PDFs on how to use it; various propaganda texts for users to read as well as the capability to play local TV and connect to the country's own internet, and it also comes with a slew of educational apps, such as French, Russian, and Chinese dictionaries. There's even an app for kids which teaches them how to type with a keyboard, and video games such as Angry Birds that have been lightly customized. The tablet only allows specific files to be used or played: users cannot just load whatever they want onto the device. Woolim also constantly keeps tabs on what its users are up to. Whenever a user opens an app, the tablet takes a screenshot. These screenshots are then available for viewing in another app, but they can't be deleted.
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Seems par for the course [medium.com]
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When are we getting the Trump version?
Is this what you're looking for? [slashdot.org]
Re: ok (Score:1)
"Lightly customized" (Score:3)
There's even an app for kids which teaches them how to type with a keyboard, and video games such as Angry Birds that have been lightly customized.
"Lightly customized?" I'm pretty sure that's colloquially known as "pirated" [washingtonpost.com].
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In North Korea, if Kim Jong Un says it is not a violation of copyright, it is not, at least not until the device arrives in a different country and jurisdiction.
Please tell me that there is a Kim Jong Un bird (Score:2)
I am really hoping the "customization" is the inclusion of a leader that is basically already an Angry Bird [mirror.co.uk] in mentality and shape.
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"Lightly customized?" I'm pretty sure that's colloquially known as "pirated" [washingtonpost.com].
Well... if "pirated" means "illegally copied and distributed", that verb doesn't apply in this case.
Wikipedia has a conventient list of countries [wikipedia.org] showing when they became signatories to various intellectual property treaties. Note the entry for "Korea, Democratic People's Republic of".
There is no international law that requires countries to honor arrangements established by treaties they haven't signed, or to respect legal monopolies granted by other countries. So what North Korea has done is perfectly le
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It's worth noting that North Korea doesn't even get a mention in the USTR Special 301 Report, so obviously they're not doing anything wrong or dodgy as far as copyright goes. Unless that report is a load of crap or something.
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It's not pirated unless DPRK has extended copyright protection to those companies. I'm pretty sure they haven't, so there is no crime or violation whatsoever.
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Windows 10 (and 7, 8, and 8.1 by updates) records every single keystroke on your keyboard, compresses, encrypts, and sends back to Microsoft with 30-minute intervals. Did you think you could type speak anonymously on the Internet using Silent Circle, Proton Mail, Signal, or whatever? Not when your text is recorded the moment it hits the keyboard.
Oh it does not. Do you know what kind of shit storm this would cause when it was found out? An, yes it would be found out. Nothing that a computer does stays hidden very long.
Stop drinking the Kool-Aid and come in from the sun. Not every corporation is out to get you,
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Here's how to turn off the Windows 10 keylogger that doesn't exist according to you:
http://www.pcworld.com/article... [pcworld.com]
I don't think you can turn off the telemetry that fires every time you open an application (ex: notepad), which is plenty of envelope information leaking all the time. Windows 10 is compromised by design. This is documented, and the fact that it DID cause a shit-storm and you ignored it should be a serious wake up call.
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Are you retarded? There is an option to turn this off in the privacy settings in Windows 10. And yes it has already caused a shit storm.
Remember every corporation is out to get you, it is just called monetization instead.
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Funny, I just looked at those settings and for me they are turned off. Since I didn't know about them before this thread, its safe to say that turned off is the default setting.
So, No it doesn't is valid.
Re:And this differs from Windows 10 telemetry how? (Score:5, Funny)
> And how does this differ from Windows 10 telemetry?
In the DPRK version, you have the option to view the spying screenshots, according to the article.
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Yeah...you ever try to send images over a 24kbps link?
Android and iOS (Score:1)
Don't think you have *any* rights or privacy on these devices.
The US is pioneer in spying on and imprisoning it's own citizens. DPRK is only just catching up. US is far, far, worse.
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All other tablets have been removed by "market forces".
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Yes with this tablet you don't get sent to the labor^H^H^H^H^H re-education camp!
That is pretty powerful sales argument indeed.
How many? (Score:3)
If they can't be deleted then how long can the tablet be used before it runs out of memory?
Re:How many? (Score:5, Funny)
The "Fearless Leader" has decreed that there is enough memory to last for the lifetime of the user. If it gets close to running out of memory, the lifetime of the user will be adjusted accordingly.
North Korea's networks (Score:2)
I guess North Korea doesn't have Internet as we're used to it; they have a CAN (Country Area Network) and a CAN'T.
And the CAN'T is much, much bigger.
So Does My Samsung Galaxy (Score:1)
My Samsung Galaxy(Android really) takes some sort of screenshot of every app.Hold down the home key and there's a stack of "cards" with all the last screenshots. They all have an X to close them and you might think that you've deleted them all.
But, hold down the home key again and your presented with another older list of screenshots.
Really ? (Score:1)
"Contraband Media" (Score:3)
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Once again (Score:2)
Once again North Korea is caught copying Windows 10....
Not disappointed (Score:5, Interesting)
Was not disappointed.
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Well at least NK is pretty open about how they are spying about their citizens. In USA they do exactly the same as NK except they try to hide the fact and have said they will kill those people who reveal this information. So yes the USA is in fact way worse as a totalitarian state. Just because you live in the USA and find this inconvenient to admit doesn't make it any less true. Remember it isn't enough to just say that your country has freedom and justice you also have to show it through actions.
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In USA they do exactly the same as NK
"Exactly the same?" Are you deranged?
Read this and tell me which parts are exactly the same -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Prison without trials:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Indefinite solitary confinement:
https://www.amnestyusa.org/res... [amnestyusa.org]
Spying on all citizens:
https://www.theguardian.com/wo... [theguardian.com]
Current government supports executions of whistleblowers:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-po... [arstechnica.com]
http://www.washingtontimes.com... [washingtontimes.com]
Executing citizens without a trial:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... [huffingtonpost.com]
Just to name a few.
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Other Governments Salivate (Score:1)
Norks already HAVE nukes (Score:2)
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How does it connect the their intranet? (Score:2)
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Already been done (Score:1)
North Korea Wants Screenshots, Some Questions (Score:1)
It has a feature which captures and sends a screen shot back to the govt every time someone opens an application. Someone has to review these screen shots to be sure that there is no "Dictator Kim is a goof'' message showing.
How many minutes until someone takes a picture of their butt and sends that in to the government recepticle? And how much longer until there is an app for that, perhaps pre-loaded with the infamous goat sex guy [no link]? And would it not be nice of that government repository were
storage space for screenshots / cloud? (Score:1)
So this would suggest that the self-filling of the storage with screenshots is inevitable. Sort of like a disposable tablet then? Whenever it fills up with screenshots you submit it for analysis and they give you a new one, lol?
The North Koreans only open apps with dicks/dildos (Score:1)