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Lawsuit Claims Windows Phone 7 Spies On Users
jfruhlinger writes "Microsoft wants to emulate the success of the iPhone, but they probably didn't want to follow in Apple's footsteps this way: a class action lawsuit claims that Windows Phone 7 is collecting location data on users, even when they request that it stop. But a look at the internals shows that Microsoft might not be acting as Big Brother-ish as it appears."
Both of them?
Help stamp out iliturcy.
This reveals a lot about Microsoft. Already, people who have a Windows Phone 7 are neither iPhone nor Android users. They're already suffering enough and Microsoft has to pile on the indignity of stealing their measly data. Microsoft must know everything there is to know about the 536 people--worldwide--who bought the Windows Phone 7.
Bet the same people invested heavily in Silverlight...
If you don't like it, don't use 'em.
Enlightenment is a pipe dream. So where's the pipe?
He concluded that "the Windows Mobile operating system is clearly sending information that can lead to accurate location information of the mobile device regardless of whether the user allowed the Camera application to share location information or not."
Is he testing Windows Mobile or Windows Phone 7? I RTFA and the linked articles and can't seem to find the testing methodology or any documentation.
And wouldn't you want that accurate location information to be sent if you were using the Find My Phone thing (just like you would with Apple's Find My iPhone):
Microsoft's "Find My Phone," meanwhile, only keeps the device's most recent location, the company said.
Of course you have to trust that the company is only keeping the most recent location but that's the case with all providers.
For some reason, you linked to the article on Kleptocracy. The article for Corporatocracy is here. Personally, I think of the United States as more of an Oligarchy.
...that the "7" in Windows Phone 7 referred to the number of users?
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
I've had a Windows Phone 7 device since day one, and it asks at every turn before doing something that would collect location (or any other) data. If it's true and not just a misconfigured device or data being poorly interpreted, I'd be surprised if it was intentional.
But, I know I know. Always assume the worst yada yada. Microsoft is evil, right?
Well, they claimed that the tracking was "for emergency use", but the few times I've had to call 911 from my cell phone, the 911 call center had no idea where I was.
All because you picked your carrier based on the phone. Dude. It's a phone. Use au or docomo if you want service. You can use your iphone on docomo, just switch the sim card, or, get an android from au and have coverage everywhere, even in the middle of nowhere.
"Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
But without a complete set of facts one must make an assumption.
No, without a complete set of facts, you go looking for a complete set of facts. Making assumptions is what everybody expects you to do, and it leads to people only feeding you partial information in an attempt to guide you towards a specific assumption.
I'm Rocco. I'm the +5 Funny man.
The towers track you by necessity, the phone itself doesn't need to do anything special and even old dumb phones can be tracked in this way.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
You sound like gp personally insulted you. He didn't. . For the record, in over a decade no such hole has been found - the closest example was a quickly patched exploit in the non-java webkit browser. Considering the historical and current userbase size for of bb device, you can be sure that it's not for lack of trying.
As far as malicious apps - well yeah. It's trivially easy to do that on any patform,because then you're exploiti g the user and not the platform. In order for a platform to be useful, it must provide developers with a means of accessing phone data and interacting with phone components. In the case of BB at least the smart user is given granular control if he wants it., as opposed to the "approve everything the app wants or do without" security of Android. (with that said, most users don'tuse that feature- and so are equally susceptible on any platform)