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.

Comments

"Lightly customized"

[Dutch Gun]

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".

Re:"Lightly customized"

[hey!]

"Lightly customized?" I'm pretty sure that's colloquially known as "pirated".

Well... if "pirated" means "illegally copied and distributed", that verb doesn't apply in this case.

Wikipedia has a conventient list of countries showing when they became signatories to various intellectual property treaties. Note the entry for "Korea, Democratic People's Republic of".

There is no international law that requires countries to honor arrangements established by treaties they haven't signed, or to respect legal monopolies granted by other countries. So what North Korea has done is perfectly legal both by its own laws and by international law. It may be sleazy, but it hardly makes the hit parade of North Korean atrocities.

How many?

[sims 2]

If they can't be deleted then how long can the tablet be used before it runs out of memory?

Re:How many?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

The "Fearless Leader" has decreed that there is enough memory to last for the lifetime of the user. If it gets close to running out of memory, the lifetime of the user will be adjusted accordingly.

"Contraband Media"

[Cajun Hell]

WTF is this Korea place, anyway? Part of Britain?

Re:And this differs from Windows 10 telemetry how?

[cfalcon]

> And how does this differ from Windows 10 telemetry?

In the DPRK version, you have the option to view the spying screenshots, according to the article.

Not disappointed

[CohibaVancouver]

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.