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Motorola Is Listening
New submitter pbritt writes "Ben Lincoln was hooking up to Microsoft ActiveSync at work when he 'made an interesting discovery about the Android phone (a Motorola Droid X2) which [he] was using at the time: it was silently sending a considerable amount of sensitive information to Motorola, and to compound the problem, a great deal of it was over an unencrypted HTTP channel.' He found that photos, passwords, and even data about his home screen config were being sent regularly to Motorola's servers. He has screenshots showing much of the data transmission."
The NSA would like to thank Motorola for their cooperation.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
"A company that listens to its users"
It's all for "improved customer experience." If they know to whom you're talking, or what pictures you're taking, or what documents you're reading or writing, or where you are at any given moment, they can better tailor their services to fit your needs. I'm surprised this isn't patently obvious. /snark
It seems every device, every internet service, basically every communication node that we use has been turned into something that is beyond George Orwell's worst nightmare. As long as there is continued complacency on the part of people using this technology, the invasion of privacy will continue to grow. This of course assumes that it could get much worse. The only options at this point are to stop or drastically reduce using these networks while we attempt to build our own.
You can RELOAD the device's OS with custom ROMs that don't do this crap. If it was discovered Apple does this (and who's to say they don't) what choice have you? And Windows phone? Don't even start.
Part of the reality of "security" is taking responsibility for your own. Security is not a product you can buy. It's not something that other people can do for you (because that's tyranny). It's a personal responsibility and it takes knowledge and understanding to do. Tough luck to all those people who have neither the inclination nor the ability to learn.
"An article you wrote for your personal website has appeared on the main page of both Slashdot and Hacker News, and you were not the submitter in either case."
I haven't logged onto this account in ages, but if anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
This is just Google collecting all of the worlds data, just like they said they were doing to do.
The Droid X2 was released on May 11, 2011. Google announced their intention to acquire Motorola Mobility on August 15, 2011, and completed the acquisition on May 22, 2012.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
What is this crap, and why do they always get it wrong?
Yes, I do want to seamlessly sync my mail, sms and contacts across my devices.
Except none of the solutions proposed really do that well...
(Or maybe I'm not typical, having multiple PCs and mobile devices, including iOS and Android?)
Photos too? Hell, why not. Picasa from Google used to be OK...
But now, after the "success" of FB, it seems that you can't have simple sync solution anymore; everybody is pushing unwanted, privacy-leaking, "social" features down our throats.
Just please fucking stop!
These are not the droids you are looking for... Look at the Chinese! Look at the evil Chinese! They're spying on us!
Well, of course they are. But look at it this way:
When the Chinese spy on you, what can they do to you based on the data it gathers?
When the your own government spies on you, what can it do to you based on the data it gathers?
Somehow, I feel safer sending my data to the Chinese...
so I need a FOIA to restore my backup now?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors.
God is imaginary