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Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

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Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#81

Post by jethro_tell »

1337biz wrote: post #70
nine_k wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Each phone takes time to be detected, identified, and tampered with. So it may make sense to activate a new burner phone, talk about something sensitive, and destroy it right afterwards, before the law enforcement understands what phone was that.

Call me paranoid but I would assume that intelligence services keep a special eye on newly activated non-smartphones.

Sure, but can they get a warrant and tap it in <24 hours? IDK, but that sure raises the barrier to entry.

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#82

Post by at-fates-hands »

nine_k wrote: post #64
kasabali wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So drug lords throwing mobile phones out of the car window after each call is just a movie trope?

Each phone takes time to be detected, identified, and tampered with. So it may make sense to activate a new burner phone, talk about something sensitive, and destroy it right afterwards, before the law enforcement understands what phone was that.

When I worked in a wireless repair shop in early 2000's, we handled the local FBI field office account. Field agents would come in and I'd chat them up as they sat and waited for me to fix their phones.

This was also around the time remote meth labs were getting really common out in rural areas. Multiple agents were talking about how frustrated they were with getting access to burner phones since most of the companies were resellers. They said by the time they got a warrant to start recording the devices, they were already dead.

I guess the bad guys knew their burner phones were only good for about two to three months tops. That was usually the timeframe from when the FBI got a read on a line, saw a judge and got the warrant processed, to contacting the carrier and getting access.

Sounds like whatever was hampering them in the past has been fixed.

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#83

Post by TreeRingCounter »

warkdarrior wrote: post #78
bjt2n3904 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gotcha. I'll just draft a law saying all devices must automatically unencrypt themselves when they enter my country's borders. Hey, it's the law! You must comply, and for your convenience, your phone will do that automatically for you! Good grief.

If you do not like the regulation, fight to change it. Do not expect your devices to do the fighting for you.

My devices should absolutely work on my behalf, and only my behalf, i.e. "do the fighting for me".

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#84

Post by TreeRingCounter »

ddalex wrote: post #59
brainchild-adam wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was not aware this could be done remotely explicitly going against settings the user himself has set.

Phone (call, data) interception is mandated in a lot of countries (i.e. operators have to do it is presented with a judicial mandate) against the wishes of user too. This setting is in the same vein, in order to allow authority controlled public broadcasts.

Governments hijacking infrastructure is not remotely the same as governments hijacking personal devices.

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#85

Post by lotsofpulp »

leephillips wrote: post #69
lotsofpulp wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is unfortunate. The alert that caused me to turn them all off was even written about in the news that day. Millions of people in the entire NYC metro region had their sleep disturbed and were pissed. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2013/07/ambert-alert-phone-4... I remember group chats of people discussing how to turn it off and my friends and I telling our parents how to turn them off.

Can't you pull out your sim card when you go to bed?

Seems pretty inconvenient, plus the world is moving to eSIM. Although, I wonder if the alert system even cares about SIM. Presumably they would send it out to any device connected to the network, not just those with a SIM?

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#86

Post by kornhole »

If you are using the Android OS originally installed on the phone, you can deactivate many of these at the OS level (not baseband) using ADB. This does not require rooting. An easy way to find and deactivate these codes is to use the UAD (Universal Android Debloater) found on Github.

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#87

Post by kelnos »

msingh_5 wrote: post #23

These are emergency broadcast alerts. Different countries have different laws on these - and in some countries you might not even be able to disable them. Just because its listed under "Apps & notifications"/"Wireless emergency alerts", it doesn't mean they are "user settings". Its not necessarily the local "carrier" that turned the settings on, its more that connecting to a cell tower in a particular jurisdiction ca…

If it's not a user setting, then it shouldn't be listed with all the other user settings, and labeled as something the user has control over. At the very least, any setting that can be overridden by the carrier should have a note or warning next to it, stating that.

The fact that it's so unclear leads me to wonder what other settings -- perhaps some related to my security or privacy -- the carrier can modify without my knowledge.

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#89

Post by Wowfunhappy »

bjt2n3904 wrote: post #74
isodev wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The local (EU) law about emergency broadcast is clear in that it applies to both residents and visitors, and alerts are to be delivered without the need for “opt-in”. In other words, if you’re in range of local services, you must receive the alerts (which, you know, is handy in case of an actual emergency).

Gotcha. I'll just draft a law saying all devices must automatically unencrypt themselves when they enter my country's borders. Hey, it's the law! You must comply, and for your convenience, your phone will do that automatically for you! Good grief.

If you are in fact the monarch of a sovereign nation, you can indeed give companies a choice: "either design your products to automatically decrypt themselves when they enter my territory, or don't do business in my country."

Companies will then be forced to make a decision based on the market size of your country. Or they will break the law, and you will have to deal with enforcement.

Most companies would like to do business in the EU.

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#90

Post by warkdarrior »

supermatou wrote: post #37

I'm experiencing the opposite; my wife and I have the same iPhone model (13), with the OS up to date. When we bought the phones, 18 months ago, I customized them to have identical settings; while doing that, I also disabled the Amber Alerts. Still, a few weeks ago, our phones started to emit an unheard (til then) sound in the middle of the night: it was an Amber Alert. WTH? did any of the OS updates enable the AA? I…

On my iPhone 12 running iOS 16, the "Government Alerts" section is at the bottom of the Notification settings screen, just need to scroll down for it.
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