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The Smartphone That Spies, and Other Surprises
GMGruman writes "As smartphones become ubiquitous accessories, unexpected consequences can result. In this blog post, InfoWorld's Galen Gruman looks at some of the unintended consequences of mobile technology's ubiquity, in which very useful technology can also raise issues. For example, the US Army has put out a training video to tell troops how to disable the location detection on iPhones and Androids so they can't be tracked when on deployment. That's just one example of the behavior and awareness that most people haven't yet grokked. Others involve cameras, microphones, and USB drives."
Yes. It's called a brick.
Honestly, a phone is designed for social interaction, you can't have 100% privacy while audibly conversing with someone, they are bound to at least know the sound of your voice...
You want a phone that doesn't have a GPS built in to track you, a camera to be logged, or a microphone to listen in on, go to a shady pawn shop, find a flip phone from 2001, call your telco about setting up the new phone, it might be as simple as moving the sim card over and having them change the device ID they have listed.
Seriously, strong privacy options are out there but most people want to be able to snap a pic and upload to facebook right away - so of course you don't get phones designed with privacy in mind.
As much as I love Heinlein, using the term grok just doesn't work. It doesn't make you look cool. It doesn't make you look well read. It just doesn't work.
Didn't you know, you don't BUY a piece of hardware? You LICENSE it. That means you have the right to use it only how they say you can use it. That allows Microsoft to brick your XBox if you mod it, Sony to remove features (Other OS), Apple to dictate which networks you can use your iPhone on, etc., etc.