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posted by martyb on Wednesday October 13 2021, @05:19PM   Printer-friendly

Android Phones Still Track You, Even When You Opt Out:

If you use an Android phone and are (rightfully!) worried about digital privacy, you’ve probably taken care of the basics already. You’ve deleted the snoopiest of the snoopy apps, opted out of tracking whenever possible, and taken all of the other precautions the popular how-to privacy guides have told you to. The bad news—and you might want to sit down for this—is that none of those steps are enough to be fully free of trackers.

Or at least, that’s the thrust of a new paper from researchers at Trinity College in Dublin who took a look at the data-sharing habits of some popular variants of Android’s OS, including those developed by Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei. According to the researchers, “with little configuration” right out of the box and when left sitting idle, these devices would incessantly ping back device data to the OS’s developers and a slew of selected third parties. And what’s worse is that there’s often no way to opt out of this data-pinging, even if users want to.

A lot of the blame here, as the researchers point out, fall on so-called “system apps.” These are apps that come pre-installed by the hardware manufacturer on a certain device in order to offer a certain kind of functionality: a camera or messages app are examples. Android generally packages these apps into what’s known as the device’s “read only memory” (ROM), which means you can’t delete or modify these apps without, well, rooting your device. And until you do, the researchers found they were constantly sending device data back to their parent company and more than a few third parties—even if you never opened the app at all.

Here’s an example: Let’s say you own a Samsung device that happens to be packaged with some Microsoft bloatware pre-installed, including (ugh) LinkedIn. Even though there’s a good chance you’ll never open LinkedIn for any reason, that hard-coded app is constantly pinging back to Microsoft’s servers with details about your device. In this case, it’s so-called “telemetry data,” which includes details like your device’s unique identifier, and the number of Microsoft apps you have installed on your phone. This data also gets shared with any third-party analytics providers these apps might have plugged in, which typically means Google, since Google Analytics is the reigning king of all the analytics tools out there.


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  • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday October 13 2021, @09:36PM (6 children)

    by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday October 13 2021, @09:36PM (#1186800)

    Sarcasm? Because yeah, all those too, I'm sure. It's been a pretty ubiquitous property of every government ever.

    But I was referring specifically to the 1950s USA - all the government surveillance and undermining of MLK being one of the older and better known examples I could think of off the top of my head.

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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday October 13 2021, @10:56PM (5 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday October 13 2021, @10:56PM (#1186820)

    The only reason "modern" government has more records of abuse of power is because of the modern difficulty of making information disappear. Nixon's tapes are a great example, but all kinds of recording, copying and transmission technology have conspired to make it easier to "out" secrets.

    I think radical transparency is the best improvement we could possibly seek in all levels of government. I'm not hopeful that it will actually happen before 2050, nor that I will live much past then. Ⓐ

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday October 14 2021, @01:36AM (4 children)

      by Immerman (3985) on Thursday October 14 2021, @01:36AM (#1186841)

      No argument here.

      But the abuses in ancient Athens aren't terribly relevant to the abuses today, and a disturbing number of people are unaware, and even unwilling to acknowledge, just how much abuse the modern US government is confirmed to have done. I guess they want to believe that "we" are the good guys, and all that ugly stuff is in the past. Certainly a much more comforting perspective I suppose...

      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday October 14 2021, @02:13AM (3 children)

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday October 14 2021, @02:13AM (#1186844)

        In ancient times they normalized graft and corruption by ensuring that the majority of the powerful people benefited from it. It's not so different today other than the fig leaf of democracy.

        Sadly, it seems that a big chunk of today's poor feel some allegiance to the rich and powerful and throw their democratic power behind policies that benefit the rich and powerful disproportionately.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
        • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday October 14 2021, @02:46AM (2 children)

          by fustakrakich (6150) on Thursday October 14 2021, @02:46AM (#1186852) Journal

          Sadly, it seems that a big chunk of today's poor feel some allegiance to the rich and powerful and throw their democratic power behind policies that benefit the rich and powerful disproportionately.

          Under the belief that they will be eaten last..

          --
          La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
          • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday October 14 2021, @12:49PM (1 child)

            by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday October 14 2021, @12:49PM (#1186952)

            Under the belief that they will be eaten last..

            I know it is exactly that, at least for some, and that's the saddest bit of cowardice I have ever felt in a supposedly proud country.

            Poor, and I'm talking lives in a rented caravan in the boonies, shares a heap truck with his wife and can barely afford basic food, clothing, and rent. "I just can't vote for Obama, if he wins boss man says he's gonna have to shut down - and I believe him, and we just can't take any more hardship than we've already got." Of course boss man was lying his ass off and actually expanded the business under Obama...

            --
            🌻🌻 [google.com]
            • (Score: 2, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Thursday October 14 2021, @04:01PM

              by fustakrakich (6150) on Thursday October 14 2021, @04:01PM (#1187001) Journal

              Everybody has their personal little fiefdom to protect. Ants and elephants are unaware of each other

              --
              La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..