Palm Pre Reports Your Location and Usage To Palm

AceJohnny writes "Joey Hess found that his Palm Pre was ratting on him. It turns out the Pre periodically uploads detailed information about the user to Palm, including the names of installed apps, application usage (and crashes), as well as GPS coordinates. This, of course, is without user consent or control. The only way he found to disable the uploads was to modify system files."

Comments

Boycott

[sakdoctor]

Ok, add them to the list.
Actually it's getting hard to keep track. Should we start a wiki?

Re:Boycott

[Ogive17]

It would be easier to keep track of the companies that have NOT screwed over the customer.

I'll get back to you if I can think of one.

Re:Did it not occur to PALM that this is BAD?

[TheCowSaysMooNotBoo]

Possibly even better answer: 90% of the Palm users don't care.

Re:Did it not occur to PALM that this is BAD?

[Rude Turnip]

Look up "prole drift." More people have opportunities to better themselves than ever before; now *everyone* has a chance to run a shady business and abuse their positions of power. Things like grass lawns and vacations also used to be the exclusive playthings of the wealthy.

Re:Slashdot Exercise Time!

[Xserv]

In the spirit of blaming Apple for Palm's misbehavior with their iTunes stunt please respond here with how this is also Apples fault.

I'll give it a shot: There's an app for that!"

I digress.

- xserv

Re:Did it not occur to PALM that this is BAD?

[Hal_Porter]

> Things like grass lawns and vacations also used to be the exclusive playthings of the elderly.

Fixed that for you. Now get off my lawn.

Re:Did it not occur to PALM that this is BAD?

[hoggoth]

> some do. its just hit the lawyer boards.
> http://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1062087&mc=1&forum_id=2

Err umm, Some of my um CLIENTS need to know if their Palm Pre will record visits to their prostitutes.
Ahem... please answer this question before 4pm this afternoon, if possible.

Re:Did it not occur to PALM that this is BAD?

[Em Emalb]

VP of Engineering: "Dude, they're going to find out, and they'll be pissed."
VP of Marketing: "This is going to be great. Think of all the things we could do with this information. Think of all the people we could sell that information to. The feature stays."
EVP of Marketing: "I eat boogers."
CMO: "Excellent work, EVP of Marketing. VP of Engineering, you're too cautious. You'll never make it in today's world."
CIO: "He's right. You're fired."
VP of Engineering: "It's all good, I already have two other jobs lined up. Later, losers."
EVP of Marketing: "Did I mention I eat my own boogers?"

Re:Yea, and....

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it great how the courts can ask Motorola where you are but you can't?

You just need to sue yourself and then ask Motorola for the location of your phone so that you can serve legal documents to yourself.

Re:Did it not occur to PALM that this is BAD?

[amicusNYCL]

How's the weather way, way, way, way down under the sand?

Re:Did it not occur to PALM that this is BAD?

[Culture20]

Yet another example of an amoral corporation not giving a shit about their customers.

I disagree. They care about you so much that they want to know where you are all the time. Next step is to turn on the voice recording feature in the middle of the night to make sure you're still breathing.

Re:Did it not occur to PALM that this is BAD?

[phoenix321]

Your palm is not a chick, never was.

Re:Did it not occur to PALM that this is BAD?

[element-o.p.]

I wonder what kind of backlash there will be about this and how much more negative impact it will have on the Palm brand.

Why, none of course...None at all, since Palm knows exactly where you were between noon and 1:00pm today, who you called, where she met you and also knows the phone number of your wife.