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But this:
> ...plaintext passwords...
Why, oh why, store plaintext passwords?!?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes of course. Personally I use Life360. It's very handy. Even Google had an app like it, until (of course!) they killed it.
They brought it back. It's branded "location sharing" in the current iteration of Google Maps. Works just like Latitude used to. You can see people who are sharing their location with you right in Google Maps.
Are this kind of apps really a thing?
Well, Apple has had one called “Find My Friends” since 2011.
I used the "find my frieds" enabling my wife to track me for when I went in a long distance working trip from Italy in a very sketchy area of the US called SILICON VALLEY.
Jokes apart, a temporary "find my friends" can be useful, but a continuous tracking it's nonsense to me.
As bad as it is, I can understand accidentally leaving a database accessible (they generally need to be accessible and setting just the right amount of accessible can be complex). But this: > ...plaintext passwords... Why, oh why, store plaintext passwords?!?
Are this kind of apps really a thing?
I constantly struggle with balance between keeping my children safe and allowing them agency and the development of personal responsibility. Among other things, this ranges over such topics as location tracking, internet filtering, browser history, screen-time, etc.
I will absolutely admit that much of this sounds like the stuff that repressive governments engage in, but then again, my children are not full citizens. They are developing human beings that require a certain degree of protection.
Are you only opposed to location tracking? What level of "nanny-state" do think is acceptable in a household setting?
As bad as it is, I can understand accidentally leaving a database accessible (they generally need to be accessible and setting just the right amount of accessible can be complex). But this: > ...plaintext passwords... Why, oh why, store plaintext passwords?!?
You start a project. You set up a DB with minimal security because you're just starting the project, and you figure that down the road before you release to the public, you will secure that DB.
A few weeks/months pass and you are ready to release your app into the wild. But by that time you are focused on other things and that unsecured DB is forgotten because it has "just worked" since that initial setup. You release and sometime later something like this happens because that DB never got the attention to security it needed because it "just worked" and was forgotten.
Don't get me wrong this is still very bad. But I can see how an unsecured server/plaintext passwords happen. It's not by design b but rather a shortcut you took way back when that you have since completely forgotten about.
So they accessed the database as well as personal information of users? Is this not a crime whether or not the database was unprotected?
> We contacted one app user at random who, albeit surprised and startled by the findings, confirmed to TechCrunch that the coordinates found under their record were accurate. So they accessed the database as well as personal information of users? Is this not a crime whether or not the database was unprotected?
As bad as it is, I can understand accidentally leaving a database accessible (they generally need to be accessible and setting just the right amount of accessible can be complex). But this: > ...plaintext passwords... Why, oh why, store plaintext passwords?!?
I can sort of see why and it's for the same reason databases are left wide open. You start a project. You set up a DB with minimal security because you're just starting the project, and you figure that down the road before you release to the public, you will secure that DB. A few weeks/months pass and you are ready to release your app into the wild. But by that time you are focused on other things and that unsecured…
Are this kind of apps really a thing?
Yes. They are terrible. My mother uses it on my teenage brother so much that he actually leaves his phone places so she thinks he’s somewhere he isn’t. So in wanting to keep your child safe by checking these apps often, you can make them _less_ safe and more dishonest.