Is It Smart To Own A “Smart Phone”?
Posted by Michelle Moquin on December 1st, 2011
Good morning!
While all you smart people are loving your smart phones, here’s another reason, besides my support of women in Congo who are killed because of conflict minerals…besides the health reasons that Health Info has posted here, why I don’t own one and I’m perfectly happy “just talking” on my old flip phone.
Yes, my flip phone may cause me cancer if I use it too much. But with a flip phone – what’s there to use? There are no features, no apps tempting me to talk or to stay on longer than I need to. I think I’m pretty smart not to own a Smart Phone.
Carrier IQ: Researcher Trevor Eckhart Outs Creepy, Hidden App Installed On Smartphones (VIDEO) (UPDATE)
A security researcher has posted a video detailing hidden software installed on smart phones that logs numerous details about users’ activities.
In a 17-minute video posted Monday on YouTube, Trevor Eckhart shows how the software – known as Carrier IQ – logs every text message, Google search and phone number typed on a wide variety of smart phones – including HTC, Blackberry, Nokia* and others – and reports them to the mobile phone carrier.
The application, which is labeled on Eckhart’s HTC smartphone as “HTC IQ Agent,” also logs the URL of websites searched on the phone, even if the user intends to encrypt that data using a URL that begins with “HTTPS,” Eckhart said.
The software always runs when Android operating system is running and users are unable to stop it, Eckhart said in the video.
“Why is this not opt-in and why is it so hard to fully remove?” Eckhart wrote at the end of the video.
In a post about Carrier IQ on his website, Eckhart called the software a “rootkit,” a security term for software that runs in the background without a user’s knowledge and is commonly used in malicious software.
Eckhart’s video is the latest in a series of attacks between him and the company. Earlier this month, Carrier IQ sent a cease and desist letter to Eckhart claiming he violated copyright law by publishing Carrier IQ training manuals online. But after the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, came to Eckhart’s defense, the company backed off its legal threats.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation said the software that Eckhart has publicized “raises substantial privacy concerns” about software that “many consumers don’t know about.”
Carrier IQ could not immediately be reached for comment. But the company told Wired.com that its software is used for “gathering information off the handset to understand the mobile-user experience, where phone calls are dropped, where signal quality is poor, why applications crash and battery life.”
On its website, Carrier IQ, founded in 2005, describes itself as “the world’s leading provider of Mobile Service Intelligence solutions.”
*A Nokia spokeswoman said CarrierIQ does not ship products for any Nokia devices.
UPDATE: Grant Paul, a well-known iPhone hacker who goes by the screenname “chpwn”, wrote on his blog that Apple has included Carrier IQ on the iPhone, but the software’s default is disabled.
Watch video of Eckhart explaining his findings:
Click to see the 13 smartphones that were rated most vulnerable to hackers and malware in 2011.
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Readers: This is truly creepy. The corps are now monitoring without regard to being held accountable for their criminal behavior. The STARK guys have given them carte blanche to break the law with a “get out of legal or financial responsibility card”. So…are you sure you still think a smart phone is smart?
PS: Update – This just came across my plate:
Click here to tune into “Worlds AIDS Day” event Live: Live: President Obama, former Presidents Bush & Clinton, Bono & Alicia Keys answer your questions in special World AIDS Day event.
Blog me.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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December 1st, 2011 at 9:08 am
I turned off all the features of my Blackberry a few years ago, so it is just a phone. It is nice. I use it for music and pictures, if needed. I found that I can use text feature via my FREE Google phone number…you can check that online…
And, I found, there is really no reason to be so hooked up, everyone will just want immediate responses from you, always. Our society has lost the sense of self through impatience and disconnect from self. The need for instant response, instant gratification, instant appreciation, instant attention…instant brewed coffee…
The world will continue to spin without your constant technological connection to it. In fact, the world will spin just as well for you when you become more in touch with it and your place in it without all of the newest technology. Save your blood pressure. In the words of Dr. Timothy Leary, “Tune in, tune out, drop out” are still good words of advice.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/01/MNDN1M67G8.DTL&feed=rss.news
December 1st, 2011 at 11:41 pm
Former President George W. Bush began a visit to three African nations Thursday with the world’s largest human rights group calling for his arrest.
Amnesty International called on Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia – where Bush is traveling to raise awareness of cervical and breast cancer and HIV/AIDS – to detain the former president pending an investigation into his role in authorizing waterboarding of suspected terrorists held by the U.S. between 2001 and 2009.
“All countries to which George W. Bush travels have an obligation to bring him to justice for his role in torture,” Matt Pollard, a senior legal adviser for Amnesty International, said in a statement.
The London-based group said it “recognizes the value of raising awareness about cervical and breast cancer in Africa,” but that the aim of the Bush visit “cannot lessen the damage” to the fight against torture caused by the 43rd president’s actions.
The call is a continuation of a campaign by Amnesty International urging countries to arrest Bush for authorizing waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning.
In October, Amnesty called on Canada to arrest Bush when he visited British Columbia for an economic summit. Bush cancelled a visit to Switzerland in February after human rights groups sought his arrest there.
December 12th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
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