Is Your Android Phone Spying on You?

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
75,399
Do you really love your Android phone? Well chances are it doesn’t love you back. Your phone may be ratting out your location and other sensitive information to data farmers through your downloaded apps.

This finding demonstrates that Android's coarse-grained access control provides insufficient protection against third-party applications seeking to collect sensitive data. Moreover, we found that one application transmits the phone information every time the phone boots. While this application displays a terms of use on first use, the terms of use does not specify collection of this highly sensitive data
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Duke Univ. tested all of these apps, and they say that some of them are spying on us? If that's the case then why wouldn't they release the 'list' of the spying apps instead of hiding them in the good apps? Am I to assume that all of these apps watch me, because you know what they say: Birds of a feather, flock together.

The Weather Channel, Cestos, Solitaire, Movies, Babble, Manga Browser, Bump, Wertago, Antivirus, ABC Animals, Traffic Jam, Hearts, Blackjack, Horoscope, 3001 Wisdom Quotes Live, Yellow Pages, Dastelefonbuch, Astrid, BBC News Live Stream, Ringtones, Layer, Knocking, Barcode Scanner, Coupons, Trapster, Spongebob Slide, ProBasketBall, MySpace, ixMAT, and Evernote.
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Good thing i only really use Barcode scanner out of this list. Don't want big brother tracking me.
 
Fact: Google collects your data.
Fact: Android is made by Google.
Conclusion: OMFG! TEH GOOGIE IS SPYIN ON JOO!

:rolleyes:
 
@sdotcarter : that is the list of the apps tested, not list of apps spying on you. That is the problem, and author of Barcode Scanner is really angry at the guys who published the paper as their wording made people think Barcode Scanner does something bad, which is not the case. Hell, Barcode Scanner doesn't even have access to location services.
 
One of the nicest things about an Android phone is how easy and quick it is to turn GPS on/off using a widget.

Saves battery and means you're only using location services when you're using an app that needs them. Just as easy to do the same for Bluetooth and WiFi.
 
Deluded said:
Fact: Google collects your data.
Fact: Android is made by Google.
Conclusion: OMFG! TEH GOOGIE IS SPYIN ON JOO!

:rolleyes:
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THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS



was this really a surprise? its a f'in google phone for christ sake?
 
Yeah this is getting blown out of proportion now. Its a Google phone first of all and second, when you install an app, it gives you warning on what data may get collected.
 
Why don't people just get a phone that makes phone calls and texts? Nothing else. No internet and no apps. If you buy one of these fancy phones, you're just bringing misery to yourself if you care at all about your privacy.
 
freeloader1969 said:
Why don't people just get a phone that makes phone calls and texts? Nothing else. No internet and no apps. If you buy one of these fancy phones, you're just bringing misery to yourself if you care at all about your privacy.
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Lol fancy phones. Dude, smart phones have been here for a while and they are here to stay. Soon, you wont have those phones that only text and make calls, they are obsolete as it is. Providers rather have you pay for internet, and with a smart phone, they make it mandatory.

Not all smartphones spy on you - hell this is not even the phone spying on you, its apps. What is with this "trend" of people that are totally against smart phones.
 
This isn't even about Google ... wow. Its about stupid consumers not reading the app usage warnings when they install apps.
 
CiscoInside said:
Not all smartphones spy on you - hell this is not even the phone spying on you, its apps. What is with this "trend" of people that are totally against smart phones.
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1. Because its cool to go against the popular trend.
2. People just don't see the need for one and automatically assume no one else needs one either.
3. Some people don't realize that phones that just do calls and text aren't really around anymore unless you're on a carrier that still holds onto some. Even dumb phones now can do internet, email, and some apps. Hell my Sanyo Katana from '06/07 could use apps, and I was browsing the web via Opera Mini on it. Getting custom ringtones that didn't suck took a little work, but other than that it could do some smartphone things decently.
4. People don't realize that dumb phones can be tracked too.

Personally, I love having a smartphone. I wish I had a better one, but I love having one. The one I have now has saved my ass so many times and has been so helpful in keeping track of things that I need to stay on top of, that to say it was a bad investment would be foolish. This has been a GREAT investment for me despite its shortcomings, so I cannot wait to upgrade to something better.
 
SamuraiInBlack said:
1. Because its cool to go against the popular trend.
2. People just don't see the need for one and automatically assume no one else needs one either.
3. Some people don't realize that phones that just do calls and text aren't really around anymore unless you're on a carrier that still holds onto some. Even dumb phones now can do internet, email, and some apps. Hell my Sanyo Katana from '06/07 could use apps, and I was browsing the web via Opera Mini on it. Getting custom ringtones that didn't suck took a little work, but other than that it could do some smartphone things decently.
4. People don't realize that dumb phones can be tracked too.

Personally, I love having a smartphone. I wish I had a better one, but I love having one. The one I have now has saved my ass so many times and has been so helpful in keeping track of things that I need to stay on top of, that to say it was a bad investment would be foolish. This has been a GREAT investment for me despite its shortcomings, so I cannot wait to upgrade to something better.
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I agree - smartphones have become such an integrated part of so many lives, including mine. I moved with the technology.. start first with the dumb flip phones, then to nextels, down the line to my first HTC 8125 and I was hooked.
 
BombermanX said:
This isn't even about Google ... wow. Its about stupid consumers not reading the app usage warnings when they install apps.
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No its about users reading the warnings, giving permission for the info to be sent.. then find out.. ADDITIONAL INFO THEY DID NOT APPROVE IS ALSO BEING SENT...
Thats the big story here... yes morons will give the info away for free for someone to make money off of it... others will not allow those apps on their phones because of their privacy concerns and move on to a different app they thought didnt take their info... then find out.. wtf? Why is my info being taken? I never gave permission for this...

Its sleaze... and the people making these apps and selling this information they have gotten from people should be forced out of business with an astronomical fine.. and im not talking some stupid $500 per offense.. im talking like the RIAA or MPAA fines for sharing files... up to $250,000 PER offense... but thats me...
 
freeloader1969 said:
Why don't people just get a phone that makes phone calls and texts? Nothing else. No internet and no apps. If you buy one of these fancy phones, you're just bringing misery to yourself if you care at all about your privacy.
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A computer hater? On a computer message board? :confused:
 
SS_Wehrwolf said:
No its about users reading the warnings, giving permission for the info to be sent.. then find out.. ADDITIONAL INFO THEY DID NOT APPROVE IS ALSO BEING SENT...
Thats the big story here... yes morons will give the info away for free for someone to make money off of it... others will not allow those apps on their phones because of their privacy concerns and move on to a different app they thought didnt take their info... then find out.. wtf? Why is my info being taken? I never gave permission for this...

Its sleaze... and the people making these apps and selling this information they have gotten from people should be forced out of business with an astronomical fine.. and im not talking some stupid $500 per offense.. im talking like the RIAA or MPAA fines for sharing files... up to $250,000 PER offense... but thats me...
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No such thing is happening. You can't access more information you allowed them to access. You allowed them to access location services, they can use.

And in this case, seriously - how else do you expect ad systems to work ? When i see Google ads anywhere, even on US servers, i see usually ads specific to Slovakia. How they do it ? Via the IP address = sort of location services. What use would be for the ad companies to serve me a japan ad ? None. They want to show ads specific for the user location - and in my eyes, that's fine. You don't want ad companies to get your location ? Buy the paid version of app, or request a paid non-ad version from the app developer.

There are 3 categories of people when dealing with this stuff - those who have no problems typing even their credit card info into a chat:D, those who don't care and then there are people like you, who are totally freak out even when the website saves a cookie in your web browser.

Some people seriously need to calm down. Do you click on ads ? Did you ever bought something served to you via ad ? No ? Then why care and freak out if some ad company makes a profile of what interest you and is serving ads based on that ? Why to care if thanks to the location services in the phone the ad company puts localized ads in the apps ? Why to care if thanks to the unique identifiers they put ads specific to your phone ?

I would care if someone steals my contact names, phone numbers, emails, SMS messages, email messages etc - but current location and a unique identifier ? Seriously ? In time when people use Google Latitude, Twitter location, ... ?

Want to get rid of apps with ads ? Go to Google, and complain about paid apps availability (32 countries), about possibility to sell apps (9 countries).
 
ScottSwing said:
The article said the information was delivered without user consent.
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You allowed the application to access your location, you cannot say you didn't allowed it. It is listed at install time as a requested access right. Same applies to the other access rights, Android application cannot access things you didn't allowed it to do at install time.
 
faugusztin said:
You allowed the application to access your location, you cannot say you didn't allowed it. It is listed at install time as a requested access right. Same applies to the other access rights, Android application cannot access things you didn't allowed it to do at install time.
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To send the information to advertisers, not access location information.
 
You allowed the application to use the location information. Period. There is no differentiation between "advertisers" and the application. If the advertiser requires targetted ads and you as a developer want to see the money from advertiser, you must provide that data. If you as a user allow the application to use locationd data, then there are no "if's" - you allowed it to use it for ANY purpose, including advertising.
 
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