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What happens when your phone is spying on you

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Re: What happens when your phone is spying on you

#121

Post by kramerger »

uoaei wrote: post #18
charcircuit wrote: post #12

>They collect a range of sensitive information such as location, texts and calls, as well as audio and video. This sentence ruins the credibility of the article because Android doesn't let you do this. The camera, microphone, can only be used when an app is in the foreground. For location data being tracked in the background it will have a persistent notification telling the user that an app has your location. For an…

> The camera, microphone, can only be used when an app is in the foreground. This is not true. This may be partially true on the latest Android, but you can still set permissions to use e.g. GPS all the time, for things like weather or GPX recording apps. But it's also important to remember that the vast majority (easily 90%) of devices out there are running EoL'd Android versions, nevermind Android 12 and 13.

> But it's also important to remember that the vast majority (easily 90%) of devices out there are running EoL'd Android versions, nevermind Android 12 and 13

In January 2023 78% of Android devices were on Android 10-13.

Note that (1) this was right before Samsungs rollout of Android 13, (2) this is worldwide and things look very different in West.

Re: What happens when your phone is spying on you

#122

Post by scarface74 »

Schroedingersat wrote: post #114
scarface74 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a couple of small restaurant owners. Even ones that don’t go through UberEats or GrubHub that use SaaS restaurant software that also come with a white labeled restaurant specific app that accepts Apple Pay (standard credit card fees - not 30%) and other payment methods. They actually prefer it.

Middleman feudal tax garbage always seems great at first. In an abusive relationship that part is called the honeymoon period. The goals, the mindset of the perpetrator, and the end results are the same.

What feudal tax? The SaaS system that provides servicing and support for the point of sales system, merchant accounts, online ordering, designs web pages, and optional apps, optional hardware for pagers when someone’s table is ready or a text messaging notification system?

Or are you referring to the app in the Apple Store that optionally supports Apple Pay (not in app purchasing) where the merchant is charged the standard credit card processing fee - $0.25 + 2-3% of the price?

Would it be better if the person running the restaurant had to do all that themselves?

I’ve seen a mom and pop pizza shop that had all of the technology of a papa Johns thanks to all of the SaaS offerings available

Re: What happens when your phone is spying on you

#123

Post by sizzle »

bartvk wrote: post #83
sizzle wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are surreptitious ways to achieving covert monitoring on iOS. To say this applies to Android only is simply untrue. You can do things via MDM on iOS for example and install spyware “monitoring” apps/set OS level permissions that are invisible to non tech saavy users. Also if you have access to the device and the iCloud password/device pin (e.g. abusive partner scenario, etc.) then non tech saavy people don’t st…

> You can do things via MDM on iOS for example and install spyware “monitoring” apps Can you name one?

I mentioned a different scenario involving iCloud, please see my comment above.

Re: What happens when your phone is spying on you

#124

Post by 867-5309 »

hb0ss wrote: post #97
867-5309 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

eating meat, burning coal, owning pets, paying taxes, cycling, sunbathing, crochet, wearing crocks with socks, shitposting..

Cycling… says the corn syrup addicted American

they probably would!

Re: What happens when your phone is spying on you

#125

Post by brutusurp »

Liquix wrote: post #46
senthil_rajasek wrote: post #28

I found this article very shallow. It covers only spyware that are installed when a device is physically compromised. I was hoping it would cover spy/malware that install remotely through many more infection vectors like clicking text messages. I guess NSO/Pegasus malware has this capability. I barely use any apps and would gladly settle for a flip phone... I value privacy more than the ability to order food through…

I was hoping it would raise the alarm regarding Google and Apple's overreaching, always-on data collection practices. 99% of people don't need to worry about an attacker gaining physical access to their unlocked device and installing an application. We as a society do need to worry about tech giants amassing enough data on us to gain an insurmountable AI-training-data advantage which makes them too useful as tools of…

Oh, maybe I can give it a shot. I'll be sure to include Amazon as well.

Re: What happens when your phone is spying on you

#126

Post by gabanutrition »

sasas wrote: post #117
gabanutrition wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This topic is intriguing. Could you please provide more information about the device and application? I'd appreciate the opportunity to examine them more thoroughly.

Sure! feel free to reach out direct; contact details in my HN profile.

Your twitter DM's are closed, but I followed you there.

Re: What happens when your phone is spying on you

#127

Post by sizzle »

lisasays wrote: post #64

So what do people recommend for malware detection (at whatever degree of efficacy) on Androids these days? Yes I know what search engines are, but I'd appreciate curated / personal recommendations, please.

Don’t place your trust in companies that have business models built on the mass collection of user data for selling targeted advertising.

Re: What happens when your phone is spying on you

#128

Post by kramerger »

scarface74 wrote: post #118
kramerger wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are those two really significantly different in sandboxing and permission model? Should also point out that neither app store is perfect and both have let malicious app slip through. Thanks to the Epic lawsuit we also know that they have tried to hide major incidents ( as in 500M installs of potential malware) from consumers.

Yes, there is no API on iOS that allows most of the things listed in the article that apps can use even it tried to use non documented APIs. > After installation, they covertly record the victim’s device activities — including any text messages, emails, photos, or voice calls — and allow abusers to remotely review this information through a web portal And the “malware” that was installed was because people were using…

That's not really sandboxing, just a limitation of what apps can do on iPhone. And I belive it has changed recently.

Doesn't really matter how the malware get there. The important part is that it waltzed right past Apples quality control.

Re: What happens when your phone is spying on you

#129

Post by walterbell »

scarface74 wrote: post #122
Schroedingersat wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Middleman feudal tax garbage always seems great at first. In an abusive relationship that part is called the honeymoon period. The goals, the mindset of the perpetrator, and the end results are the same.

What feudal tax? The SaaS system that provides servicing and support for the point of sales system, merchant accounts, online ordering, designs web pages, and optional apps, optional hardware for pagers when someone’s table is ready or a text messaging notification system? Or are you referring to the app in the Apple Store that optionally supports Apple Pay (not in app purchasing) where the merchant is charged the st…

Hopefully white label SaaS will grow their marketshare - any estimates on annual revenue for that sector?

Revenue for the major US delivery apps is currently in the billions, with feudal taxes.

Re: What happens when your phone is spying on you

#130

Post by walterbell »

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #78
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I value privacy more than the ability to order food through my phone. I know you didn't mean it like this, but I find it funny that it reads like we've abandoned the idea of calling a restaurant and just talking to a person to order takeaway.

The sad thing is that even if you do that, the restaurants are now almost guaranteed to use your phone as unique identifier and use that data for, hopefully, their own purposes ( hopefully, because the lure of selling data might be too much ).

It's good privacy practice to use cheap and disposable VOIP numbers for online/phone shopping, changed periodically.
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