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North Korea's Android Tablet Takes a Screenshot Every Time You Open an App (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: When you think of North Korea, the first thing that springs to mind is probably not a well-featured tablet PC. But that's just what researchers at the Chaos Communication Congress hacking festival revealed on Tuesday. Called Woolim, this tablet is designed to limit the distribution of contraband media, track its users, and generally act as a propaganda platform for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Woolim is a small, white Android device that looks like a fairly standard tablet. The hardware itself is made by Chinese manufacturer Hoozo, but the North Korean government has removed some components such as those for wi-fi and bluetooth, and put its own bespoke software on top. After the researchers presented work covering RedStar OS, North Korea's Linux-based operating system, a South Korean NGO offered the tablet to the group. Woolim is just one of several tablets designed for North Korea, but Woolim appears to be the most recent, likely dating from 2015. The tablet has PDFs on how to use it; various propaganda texts for users to read as well as the capability to play local TV and connect to the country's own internet, and it also comes with a slew of educational apps, such as French, Russian, and Chinese dictionaries. There's even an app for kids which teaches them how to type with a keyboard, and video games such as Angry Birds that have been lightly customized. The tablet only allows specific files to be used or played: users cannot just load whatever they want onto the device. Woolim also constantly keeps tabs on what its users are up to. Whenever a user opens an app, the tablet takes a screenshot. These screenshots are then available for viewing in another app, but they can't be deleted.
They should taking a photo with the front-facing camera 2 minutes into every streamed video to get porn viewing moneyshots instead.
App Korea knows that only apps can app apps, and that just makes this app apping device super appy!
Apps!
In all seriousness, it's all spy business.
When are we getting the Trump version?
Not much difference between the DPRK and the US.
Cool, just like the phones from Apple and Samsung.
There's even an app for kids which teaches them how to type with a keyboard, and video games such as Angry Birds that have been lightly customized.
"Lightly customized?" I'm pretty sure that's colloquially known as "pirated".
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
iPhone and iPad: snaps a picture with the front-facing camera every time a user reinstalls or upgrades the system, and forwards to Apple.
MacBook: the built-in camera was specifically built to decouple the LED indicator from the camera, allowing systems software to record the user without letting them know. During macOS and OS X installation, a few seconds of footage is recorded and forwarded to Apple as soon as an Internet connection is established.
Windows 10 (and 7, 8, and 8.1 by updates) records every single keystroke on your keyboard, compresses, encrypts, and sends back to Microsoft with 30-minute intervals. Did you think you could type speak anonymously on the Internet using Silent Circle, Proton Mail, Signal, or whatever? Not when your text is recorded the moment it hits the keyboard.
I am really hoping the "customization" is the inclusion of a leader that is basically already an Angry Bird in mentality and shape.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
And how does this differ from Windows 10 telemetry?
Seriously, according to TFS it plays local broadcast TV, connects to the country's intranet, has dictionaries, user manuals (these have all been eliminated in the "developed world"), apparently enough other stuff to keep a child occupied. If I was a North Korean citizen it would find it quite a capable device.
Don't think you have *any* rights or privacy on these devices.
The US is pioneer in spying on and imprisoning it's own citizens. DPRK is only just catching up. US is far, far, worse.
If they can't be deleted then how long can the tablet be used before it runs out of memory?
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
designed to limit the distribution of contraband media,
No "fake news"!
track its users
Google!
and generally act as a propaganda platform for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
The New York Times
Guess what? Hillary! was such a crappy candidate with such a shitty message that she lost to an obnoxious blowhard.
all us tech firms do the same shit. apple, google, amazon device all spy on you.
us has more people in prison that the entire population of pyongyang.
I guess North Korea doesn't have Internet as we're used to it; they have a CAN (Country Area Network) and a CAN'T.
And the CAN'T is much, much bigger.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
My Samsung Galaxy(Android really) takes some sort of screenshot of every app.Hold down the home key and there's a stack of "cards" with all the last screenshots. They all have an X to close them and you might think that you've deleted them all.
But, hold down the home key again and your presented with another older list of screenshots.
Not sure if it's really needed
WTF is this Korea place, anyway? Part of Britain?
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
Once again North Korea is caught copying Windows 10....
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Purposely came to the comments section to read all the "Yeah? Well the USA is *way* worse than North Korea!" posts from Anonymous Coward nutjobs who wouldn't survive for ten minutes in North Korea.
Was not disappointed.
What other governments around the world want for their citizens. Coming soon to a country near you lol. Yes I know tin foil hat but is it really that off of a prediction?
Do you think trump is going to let them build a nuke?
In another five or ten years their surveillance capabilities might catch up with what Google and other western tech companies do.
First, it says that wifi and bluetooth have been removed, then it says they can get onto the DPRK 'Internet', and watch local TV(!) How? I could understand if they have a GSM connection that supplies the networking (although if that is so, why remove the wifi?), but how does it access TV? I highly doubt their GSM infrastructure can support IPTV, although perhaps I'm wrong. If they do, in fact, have IPTV, I hope someone here in the states gets (and shares) access to it; I'd be fascinated to see their live feed.
Or maybe I'm overthinking it; the price listed for the wholesale parts is pretty high. It probably has an integrated NIC and hardware-based tuner with coax and Ethernet jacks across the back. Which would be hilarious.
A bit late for that
It's like every other tablet but they are honest about the spying. Kind of curious how it will work on the psychology of its users. Can they sell it's either privacy or security mutual exclusivity like they sold us here in the Western world without using terrorism, or is the populous already so submissive and suffering the chilling effect that this will easily not be a problem.
It sounds like an upcoming Windows 10 "feature" crept in.
Why not use microsoft products... They have all the spyware built-in.
I'm sure NK could of made a deal with microsoft to redirect all spy data to their servers?
But the only country it can nuke, so far, is itself.
"users cannot just load whatever they want onto the device" --> just like all iOS devices
It has a feature which captures and sends a screen shot back to the govt every time someone opens an application. Someone has to review these screen shots to be sure that there is no "Dictator Kim is a goof'' message showing.
How many minutes until someone takes a picture of their butt and sends that in to the government recepticle? And how much longer until there is an app for that, perhaps pre-loaded with the infamous goat sex guy [no link]? And would it not be nice of that government repository were publicly posted in the west?
Tilt at windmills. Occasionally one will fall over out of sheer surprise.
It has an analog TV Tuner. Such tablets and cellphones (with built-in TV tuner) are quite popular in China.
Woolim also constantly keeps tabs on what its users are up to. Whenever a user opens an app, the tablet takes a screenshot. These screenshots are then available for viewing in another app, but they can’t be deleted.
So this would suggest that the self-filling of the storage with screenshots is inevitable. Sort of like a disposable tablet then? Whenever it fills up with screenshots you submit it for analysis and they give you a new one, lol?
It's made to facilitate the work on photographing and sending dickpics, you insensitive clod!
Uh, no. Seoul is right next to their border, and they've done missile tests that successfully include Tokyo in their range