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How Cheap Smartphones Siphon User Data in Developing Countries (wsj.com)
Newley Purnell, reporting for WSJ: For millions of people buying inexpensive smartphones in developing countries where privacy protections are usually low, the convenience of on-the-go internet access could come with a hidden cost: preloaded apps that harvest users' data without their knowledge. One such app, included on thousands of Chinese-made Singtech P10 smartphones sold in Myanmar and Cambodia, sends the owner's location and unique-device details to a mobile-advertising firm in Taiwan called General Mobile, or GMobi. The app also has appeared on smartphones sold in Brazil and those made by manufacturers based in China and India, security researchers say.
Taipei-based GMobi, with a subsidiary in Shanghai, says it uses the data to show targeted ads on the devices. It also sometimes shares the data with device makers to help them learn more about their customers. "If end users want a free internet service, he or she needs to suffer a little for better targeting ads," said a GMobi spokeswoman. [...] GMobi is one of several entities using the combination of low-cost smartphones and low regulations to siphon off reams of user data. Shanghai-based Adups and Indian digital advertising firm MoMagic offer similar firmware-updating services in partnership with smartphone makers.
Taipei-based GMobi, with a subsidiary in Shanghai, says it uses the data to show targeted ads on the devices. It also sometimes shares the data with device makers to help them learn more about their customers. "If end users want a free internet service, he or she needs to suffer a little for better targeting ads," said a GMobi spokeswoman. [...] GMobi is one of several entities using the combination of low-cost smartphones and low regulations to siphon off reams of user data. Shanghai-based Adups and Indian digital advertising firm MoMagic offer similar firmware-updating services in partnership with smartphone makers.
I hear the new phones have electrolytes.
It's what RF craves.
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
Do I or do I not remember some stories posted here in the past discussing how there was spyware/malware baked right into the firmware and/or OS of some phones, right from the factory? Essentially undetectable without, I dunno, JTAG access to the phones' Flash memory? If I'm right, what makes anyone think that it's just mere 'Apps' that are surveilling people who have phones from any number of sources?
In a developing nation, it is still necessary to steal data.
In a first world nation, people fall over themselves in their hurry to give their data away.
Funny thing, that.
Check your premises.
Never use the OS that came with your computer. There's too much conflict of interest. Hardware vendors always screw the user on the software side.
It doesn't matter if the computer fits in your pocket. That's no excuse.
If it came with Windows, do a clean install, or better yet, install a good Linux distro.
If it came with Android, install AOSP, or Lineage (if you can't unlock the bootloader to do this, your computer is trash. Throw it in the garbage where it belongs).
And then there's the Apples ... The logo tells you all you need to know. Would you buy fruit at the grocery store if the grocer already took a bite?
Versus you, who comes and shits here on /.
Lessee. $0.10 per year from 1.1B people is still $110M per year.
If you don't want a piece of that, I'm sure there are others who do.
sends the owner's location and unique-device details to a mobile-advertising firm
This is the same thing that happens on every other non-Apple smartphone. Yet the journalist goes to great lengths to imply this abuse has something to do with the poverty and supposedly less regulated environs of the customers.
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Unblocked version on Toronto Star: https://www.thestar.com/busine...
*** On the Internet, no one knows you're using a VIC-20
âoesays it uses the data to show targeted ads on the devices.âoe because people in developing areas using the cheapest of devices are going to have so much spare currency left over to spend at the places being advertised to them. how is that even an effective business model?
Sending spam is nearly free. So if only 0.1% falls for the trap, money is made.
-- Cheers!
Nah. People freely give away boring data. Like photos of their lunch.
For the interesting data - location history, call history, contents of your messages, live mic/camera feeds - they still have to collect it surreptitiously.
At this point, pretty much everyone knows that Big Brother Google is always watching, and that Creepy Facebook just wants to stalk you. They don't even hide their data slurping anymore.
But there are dozens of other companies that make their money by snooping and stealing your data. Try the Exodus Privacy scanner - it's FOSS - for some enlightening results. https://exodus-privacy.eu.org/
Goodness, it sure would suck to live in a country with low privacy protections. I bet they'd even let the manufacturer continue to control the phone even after they sold it to you, And install all kinds of stuff on your device that does things that you don't want it to do. And disallow you from uninstalling it. Or, even, prohibiting you from getting root on your very own computer!
Nah, just kidding. There's noplace that backward.