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MIT researchers have found that much of the data transferred to and from the 500 most popular free applications for Google Android cellphones make little or no difference to the user's experience.
Of those "covert" communications, roughly half appear to be initiated by standard Android analytics packages, which report statistics on usage patterns and program performance and are intended to help developers improve applications.
"The interesting part is that the other 50 percent cannot be attributed to analytics," says Julia Rubin, a postdoc in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), who led the new study. "There might be a very good reason for this covert communication. We are not trying to say that it has to be eliminated. We're just saying the user needs to be informed."
The original paper [PDF] came via MIT.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2015, @05:53AM
You installed those applications on the phone, and you gave each app permission to periodically check in
Incorrect, these are "all-or-nothing" permissions. Sometimes they fall under "permission to use the internet". It's the equivalent of "sure, you can exist but I'm going to pump you with a big rubber d*ck for as long as you do... Don't like it? Why don't you stop existing...". The argument "well then don't use those things" is not a valid solution because the problem that the original AC refers to is that this has become the norm, and there effectively aren't any alternatives to it unless rolling your own apps.
The weather, Time synchronization, Email checks or idled socket timeout and refresh cycles, Messaging, presence indicators, Tower re-negotiations, Calendar checking for updates
Yes, and those apps are fine as long as they're just doing that. What we're talking about is when these apps are transferring data unrelated to their primary task
Did you turn on location services?
Heck no. It's already bad enough that my telco knows where my phone every second that it's switched on
Any social media apps you might have installed checking in...
none of that cruft comes even close to my devices.
Any one of them that were authorized to use the net, might be using the net.
Sure, and as long as they do that in order to fulfill their primary function, I have no problem with it.
Here's an analogy, how would you like it if "ls" sent the file listing to the developers of "ls" every time you execute the command? All under the moniker of "Improving The User Experience". What about a browser sending every single URL you request to the maker of the browser?
What the original AC is (rightfully) complaining about, are apps transmitting data which is not part of the functionality that the app is offering. THAT is the problem
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Friday November 20 2015, @06:58AM
It is [a/the only] valid solution as long as your life does not depend on those apps. It's called the "free market". If enough people stop using these kind of apps, and start shedding out money for properly, privacy aware implemented apps, there will be a market for privacy-aware apps, and more such apps will be available.
Or use an open source system. Chances are people will find ways to provide dummy-interfaces for some of the permissions you want to redraw without the app noticing.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Friday November 20 2015, @10:08AM
sudo mod me up