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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."
I read the privacy policy and it doesn't really seem like it's built to cover this kind of snooping.
And then there's this:
You may choose whether or not to provide your personal information to us. If you choose not to do so, you can continue to interact with Palm, but you may not be able to take advantage of certain products, services, offers, or options that depend on personal information.
So is there a website or a setting on the Pre to disable this thing. TFA seems to say there isn't.
I mean, there's utility in understanding how people are using your device. But not letting your users know you're uploading daily usage stats and not giving them a way to turn it off?
Truly Uncool.
It breaks my pluginses, my precious!
OK, I can see sending what applications are installed and what crashes have occurred given the user's explicit permission - I allow my Ubuntu boxes to participate in the "popularity contest" wherein what apps I install are (anonymously) logged, and I will frequently send crash reports to help get the cause of the crash fixed.
In both of those cases *I* decide if it happens, and I was informed of the data being uploaded.
But automatically reporting my GPS locations - HELL NO!!!
Yes, the Pre is a phone - as such it MUST, BY LAW be able to report its location to 911 (here in the US, natch). My phone (which is NOT a Pre) has been configured to turn GPS off for anything OTHER than E911. If I found out that it was NOT abiding by that selection - that it was sending position data to anyone other than E911 - then not only would I be terminating my cell contract, I would be filing suit against the makers of the phone AND the cell carrier.
Again, I can see why Palm would want apps installed and crash data - but WHAT DAMN BUSINESS is it of theirs to know position?!?!
www.eFax.com are spammers
The "story" doesn't touch on this, but I would suspect that there *was* disclosure on some click-through set-up screen, and the user wasn't paying attention.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Well, if my fellow coworkers who chose the Pre over the iPhone were not quite ready to return their devices for full refund and termination of any contract signed at purchase when Palm "hacked" iTunes and Apple promptly "fixed" it cutting all the users off from sync, now they REALLY have a strong case to return it.
In fact, I just mentioned this article to a co-worker who was showing off his shiny new Pre to me late last week, which after using it for a few days and finding out contrary to what the clerk told him that he could in fact not sync with iTunes, He's clocking out now to return it to the store he bought it from and promised to be headed to Bestbuy to pick up an iPhone 3GS on the way back...
There is no contest in life for which the unprepared have the advantage.
Does it matter? They're collecting information that they shouldn't be.
Would you be OK with a Mac sending Apple a list of all the files your user owns?
How about Linux sending the kernel developers your MAC and IP addresses (or traceroute)?
How about Windows sending Microsoft a list of all the search terms you've entered into Google? (via the TCP stack, not IE)
Since all 3 of these are OS-related, would you care if those got shuffled? (i.e. Windows sending Microsoft a list of all the files your user owns)
None of these hurt you in any way, yet I wouldn't want any of these situations happening.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
Google did this specifically in Google Maps Mobile well before they rolled out the "find my location" support in it.
In early Google Maps Mobile versions, if you had GPS support, it would include the GPS coordinates and the "visible" cell tower IDs and strengths in every request back to Google. They used this data to improve their location service (by getting GPS data on where the cell towers were) before rolling it out to the public. That's how they got the location service to work even on phones without GPS data, it uses the cell tower signal strengths to guess at where you are.
The data is still sent by Google Maps Mobile on any phone that supports it.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.