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FTC to HTC: Patch Vulnerabilities On Smartphones and Tablets
New submitter haberb writes "I always thought my HTC phones were of average or above average quality, and certainly no less secure than an vanilla Android install, but it turns out someone was still not impressed. 'Mobile device manufacturer HTC America has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the company failed to take reasonable steps to secure the software it developed for its smartphones and tablet computers, introducing security flaws that placed sensitive information about millions of consumers at risk.' Perhaps this will push HTC to release some of the ICS upgrades they promised a few months ago but never delivered, or perhaps the reason they fell through in the first place?"
The best software patch I've found for HTC products, though I have tried others.
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company failed to take reasonable steps to secure the software it developed for its smartphones and tablet computers, introducing security flaws that placed sensitive information about millions of consumers at risk
It should also be illegal to install bloatware that is embedded to the point of not being removable (without at least rooting the device and perhaps voiding warranty). Nothing makes the phone more secure than facebook processes -- there are several, and a dozen other built-in crapware clients (peddling games, services, etc).
And I don't think that buying full-priced phone changes anything, either.
Right. Why do summary writers always try to force the story toward their pet peeve.
Further this FTC settlement had NOTHING to do with what version of Android was installed, but rather the diagnostics and monitoring applications they had installed, mostly at the carriers request.
Both "Carrier IQ", something demanded by carriers, till they got caught, and "Tell HTC" a bug reporting software, ended up leaving logs on the phone that contained private data in clear-text, and transmitted that data to the carriers or to HTC in un-encrypted format. It also had to do with the handling of that data once it was delivered to the carriers and more specifically to HTC.
Why the summary writer had to make it about something else is beyond me.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
HTC is the only company who sells Android phones that I'd consider buying. Too bad Android apparently has issues with security updates / etc. Sure, blame the vendor... But this seems to be a prevalent problem with Android based phones.
Lets have a little look at security on the iPhone...hmmm you can just fiddle with the power button and making an emergency call then immediately hang up, and it bypasses the passcode.
Perhaps you would have been better with a HTC phone after all ;)