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Chinese Mobile Phone Cameras Are Not-So-Secretly Recording Users' Activities (globalvoices.org)
Oiwan Lam, reporting for Global Voices: It has been widely reported that software and web applications made in China are often built with a "backdoor" feature, allowing the manufacturer or the government to monitor and collect data from the user's device. But how exactly does the backdoor feature work? Recent discussion among mobile phone users in mainland China has shed some light on the question.
Last month, users of Vivo NEX, a Chinese Android phone, found that when they opened certain applications on the phone, including Chinese internet giant QQ browser and travel booking app Ctrip, the mobile device's camera would self-activate. [...] One Weibo user observed that the retractable camera self-activates whenever he opens a new chat on Telegram, a messaging application designed for secured and encrypted communication.
[...] After the news of the self-activated camera bug spread, users started testing the issue on other applications and found that Baidu's voice input application has access to both the camera and voice recording function, which can be launched without users' authorization. A Vivo NEX user found that once she had installed Baidu's voice input system, it would activate the phone's camera and sound recording function whenever the user opened any application -- including chat apps, browsers -- that allows the user to input text.
Last month, users of Vivo NEX, a Chinese Android phone, found that when they opened certain applications on the phone, including Chinese internet giant QQ browser and travel booking app Ctrip, the mobile device's camera would self-activate. [...] One Weibo user observed that the retractable camera self-activates whenever he opens a new chat on Telegram, a messaging application designed for secured and encrypted communication.
[...] After the news of the self-activated camera bug spread, users started testing the issue on other applications and found that Baidu's voice input application has access to both the camera and voice recording function, which can be launched without users' authorization. A Vivo NEX user found that once she had installed Baidu's voice input system, it would activate the phone's camera and sound recording function whenever the user opened any application -- including chat apps, browsers -- that allows the user to input text.
If China were the only one moving that way, it would possibly limit their economic growth. The problem is the entire WORLD seems to be moving that way, some at a faster rate than others. But it's not like I can honestly look at my United States and say we aren't doing the exact same thing, and whenever one of us plebes mention it in a public forum all that has to happen is somebody whines about how it's for our own protection and then it ceases to be an issue of importance.
Our phones spy on us. They send that data to everyone who is interested. It goes to google and apple, it goes to your carrier, it goes to whoever wrote any app at all that you installed on your phone, and it goes to the government. This is not paranoia. This has all been demonstrated.
And dumbphones aren't off the hook. Your location data is sent back to your carrier at all times, and the government can remotely and covertly activate your mic and camera at any time to spy on you (presumably, with a warrant, of course).
Your only way to prevent this is to remove the battery. So long as the phone has power, you must assume that it is spying on you.
It's not a backdoor, it's a frontdoor.