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Is your smartphone listening to you?

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#31

Post by Canada »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #12
jimhefferon wrote: post #4

If a vendor provided a physical switch with which I could turn off the mic, that would be a feature that I at least would consider very attractive.

That's in my proposal for a secure or private phone that I drop on people trying to build one. Hopefully it will get in a successful product at some point. Need one for mic, front camera, rear camera, and radios. Might compromise to have a physical switch for mic and radios with something inside phone (eg a jumper) to turn off others. I want to be sure I can cut actual power to mic and wireless, though.

I'd also buy such a phone. The switches to toggle each radio and sensor could be behind the removable back panel. I wish it were possible to easily disable in software mobile service without also disabling wifi and bluetooth as well.

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#32

Post by digi_owl »

voidz wrote: post #9

The article takes it into a boring direction, and they didn't mention Samsung who is most active in this field. Vendors bypass appstores with their proprietary apps. Once upon a time I had a Samsung phone, and when I configured its email app, I saw Samsung's own servers, and not my phone, logging in to my email server. Which means they stole my password. That's when I tossed out Samsung devices once and for all. But…

> Once upon a time I had a Samsung phone, and when I configured its email app, I saw Samsung's own servers, and not my phone, logging in to my email server. Which means they stole my password.

Would love to see some traffic logs regarding this.

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#33

Post by digi_owl »

Canada wrote: post #31
nickpsecurity wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's in my proposal for a secure or private phone that I drop on people trying to build one. Hopefully it will get in a successful product at some point. Need one for mic, front camera, rear camera, and radios. Might compromise to have a physical switch for mic and radios with something inside phone (eg a jumper) to turn off others. I want to be sure I can cut actual power to mic and wireless, though.

I'd also buy such a phone. The switches to toggle each radio and sensor could be behind the removable back panel. I wish it were possible to easily disable in software mobile service without also disabling wifi and bluetooth as well.

At least on my Huawei P6 i can set it to flight mode and then turn back on wifi and bluetooth. Actually i have used the thing more like a PDA than a phone, as i have a well functioning HSPA capable featurephone that i pair up if ever i need data on the go.

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#34

Post by dredmorbius »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #12
jimhefferon wrote: post #4

If a vendor provided a physical switch with which I could turn off the mic, that would be a feature that I at least would consider very attractive.

That's in my proposal for a secure or private phone that I drop on people trying to build one. Hopefully it will get in a successful product at some point. Need one for mic, front camera, rear camera, and radios. Might compromise to have a physical switch for mic and radios with something inside phone (eg a jumper) to turn off others. I want to be sure I can cut actual power to mic and wireless, though.

Sell a micless phone. Actually, it's a tablet, and if you want it to go into surveillance / phone mode, you plug in your own goddamend mic. Most headsets have one.

Alternatively: a phone whose "off" mode is a battery eject.

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#35

Post by awqrre »

internaut wrote: post #6
jimhefferon wrote: post #4

If a vendor provided a physical switch with which I could turn off the mic, that would be a feature that I at least would consider very attractive.

After Snowden I just took a pliers to my laptop and ripped out the mic and webcam. It felt great.

Speakers can be used as microphones....

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#36

Post by dredmorbius »

As I've been suggesting increasingly on HN and elsewhere: sell me hardware without a mic.

I no longer trust mobile phones at all, so I carry one virtually never.

I use a tablet. It has an integrated mic and two cameras. The cameras are taped (they should have lens caps). On the rare occasions I use it for voice comms, I plug in a headset.

Pervasive audio pickup is a growing problem. It's going to be all but impossible to avoid other devices (other people's phones, audio-wired Internet-of-Shit lightbulbs, toasters, refrigerators, thermostats, video panels, Glade Stasi Vases (e.g., Google Now, Amazon Echo), cars, busses. But you can at least assert your own personal hardware.

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#37

Post by dredmorbius »

logicallee wrote: post #29
etatoby wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You only need to put in the app an obscure functionality that makes use of the mic, and then explain what it is in the app description, for the 1% of people who will even bother to ask why Super Candy Smash Tournament is asking for permission to use the mic.

If Google were serious about granular permissions in Android it would allow you to choose from three options: "allow", "block", "pretend to allow" for every requested permission, where the third would be described as "Your app will be given permission but will not have actual access unless you grant it." Then later you could have a pop-up "This app is requesting access to your camera. You have previously chosen to gi…

Google's Android permissions model, application ecosystem, and vendor partnerships are utterly and irredeemably broken.

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#38

Post by stakent »

logicallee wrote: post #29
etatoby wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You only need to put in the app an obscure functionality that makes use of the mic, and then explain what it is in the app description, for the 1% of people who will even bother to ask why Super Candy Smash Tournament is asking for permission to use the mic.

If Google were serious about granular permissions in Android it would allow you to choose from three options: "allow", "block", "pretend to allow" for every requested permission, where the third would be described as "Your app will be given permission but will not have actual access unless you grant it." Then later you could have a pop-up "This app is requesting access to your camera. You have previously chosen to gi…

Looks like xprivacy.

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#39

Post by morganvachon »

digi_owl wrote: post #33
Canada wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd also buy such a phone. The switches to toggle each radio and sensor could be behind the removable back panel. I wish it were possible to easily disable in software mobile service without also disabling wifi and bluetooth as well.

At least on my Huawei P6 i can set it to flight mode and then turn back on wifi and bluetooth. Actually i have used the thing more like a PDA than a phone, as i have a well functioning HSPA capable featurephone that i pair up if ever i need data on the go.

> i have a well functioning HSPA capable featurephone

Make and model, please? I've been searching for something like that for a while now. Everything I've found is either carrier-specific, doesn't allow tethering, or is 2G only.

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#40

Post by digi_owl »

morganvachon wrote: post #39
digi_owl wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least on my Huawei P6 i can set it to flight mode and then turn back on wifi and bluetooth. Actually i have used the thing more like a PDA than a phone, as i have a well functioning HSPA capable featurephone that i pair up if ever i need data on the go.

> i have a well functioning HSPA capable featurephone Make and model, please? I've been searching for something like that for a while now. Everything I've found is either carrier-specific, doesn't allow tethering, or is 2G only.

Long since discontinued, sadly. Its a SonyEricsson C702.
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