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Your Own Mini-Stalker

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the keep-it-in-your-pants dept.

kashif.ahsan writes "A ComputerWorld article discusses the inherent privacy dangers of carrying around our ubiquitous technological assistants. They're like miniature stalkers, right there in your pocket. 'Camera phones contain all the necessary ingredients for completely invasive stalking: a microphone, camera, personal data on the user, location information, a chat and call history — you name it. And victims carry them everywhere they go. All that's missing is the software that lets stalkers take control ... new software, called snoopware, does just that.'"

4 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Ooooooh Kaaaaay.... by Zadaz · · Score: 5, Funny

    And carrying a remote control is like having a little telekinetic friend.

  2. THAT certainly scared me! by SamP2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So let's get this straight...

    - I'm already being spied on by close-circuit cameras planted everywhere short of the public toilet (may be wrong on that one as well)
    - Government agencies and their friendly associates already have records of my name, sex, DOB, address, occupation, salary, and other "general statistics"
    - Corporate spyware already records my keystrokes, browsing habits, shopping history, porn preferences, dubious sources of owned MP3s, financial credentials, political views, and probably things I don't even know about

    And now you are trying to tell me I need to be scared of my 4x3 inch PDA? Right, because OBVIOUSLY that's the only thing threatening my privacy!

  3. Re:Personal infromation by 19thNervousBreakdown · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nah, it's possible. All you need, and this is really easy--trust me--all your need is to write an application that can run on any weird-endian processor, hundreds of different micro-oses, or in the case of java-supporting phones, break out of the java sandbox, or on brew phones just get yourself the developer certificate from qualcomm and then get the carrier to distribute your app to their customers.

    This is going to be huge.

    ...

    Well, there's always BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.

    --
    <xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
  4. That's a feature by oheso · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In Japan it's marketed as a feature. You can stalk your kids as they walk from school to home (with various detours into convenience stores to read the manga, etc.). There's an ad with some kid walking home and everywhere he goes there are black hats videoing him and speaking into lapel microphones.