Forensic Investigation – The Shocking State of Privacy in Safety Apps • Hacker News Board

Re: Forensic Investigation – The Shocking State of Privacy in Safety Apps

#11

Post by marinosbern » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:56 PM UTC

vorpalhex wrote: post #6

marinosbern wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks so much for taking the time to look at this. I absolutely understand your concerns and I would be equally skeptical if I was reading this. Ultimately, anyone is free to repeat this analysis independently and see for themselves. Everything presented in our report is evidenced, recorded and cross-checked very extensively over a long period of time in anticipation of this. You'll also notice that we try to includ…

I'd be curious about LiveSafe - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.livesafe.a...

Here you go — findings for LiveSafe:

Branch, Crashlytics, DoubleClick, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager

Our understanding is that it's an enterprise app not available to consumers, which is why we did not list its findings in the report

Re: Forensic Investigation – The Shocking State of Privacy in Safety Apps

#12

Post by Jon_Lowtek » Mon, May 18, 2020, 5:12 PM UTC

smolder wrote: post #2

I don't think this is at all shocking when there's no public awareness, no laws against it outside the EU, no consumer recourse, and no indication that anyone wants to fix it.

Europa is fighting for privacy at least since the 80s with the ratification of its data protection convention and one might believe it to be "an EU thing" because neither the USA nor China care much about it, but there are many other countries that agree and established such laws. Look no further than Argentina, Senegal or Singapore for examples in your region of the world. I believe it is of utmost importance that people understand this "protection of personal data" is not some annoying european law that forces ad-tech to make cookie-banners, it is literally the title of article 8 in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. It is, for us, a fundamental human right, and you should demand that it is one of yours, too.

Re: Forensic Investigation – The Shocking State of Privacy in Safety Apps

#13

Post by marinosbern » Mon, May 18, 2020, 7:25 PM UTC

rndgermandude wrote: post #7

marinosbern wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks so much for taking the time to look at this. I absolutely understand your concerns and I would be equally skeptical if I was reading this. Ultimately, anyone is free to repeat this analysis independently and see for themselves. Everything presented in our report is evidenced, recorded and cross-checked very extensively over a long period of time in anticipation of this. You'll also notice that we try to includ…

>If you have a suggestion on how to better elucidate this, please let me know. Put it in the actual text. I don't necessarily look at urls, navbars, logos, authors. Prefixing the text with something like the following would go a long way: Notice: This analysis was performed by Parachute, one of the companies competing in this space. We tried to keep it fair and balanced, regardless, and invite the readers to fact-che…

Done! Thanks so much for suggesting!

Re: Forensic Investigation – The Shocking State of Privacy in Safety Apps

#14

Post by 7174n6 » Mon, May 18, 2020, 8:33 PM UTC

They are misusing the term "Forensic" which is the application of a science for the purpose of law. Did they do this to further a criminal or civil action? It seems they just did some testing - maybe they have the "investigation" part correct.

Re: Forensic Investigation – The Shocking State of Privacy in Safety Apps

#15

Post by Jon_Lowtek » Tue, May 19, 2020, 9:35 AM UTC

From Parachutes privacy policy:

> GDPR: Parachute’s privacy practices exceed the level set by GDPR and similar legislation. Because Parachute does not install any cookies and does not use any tracking, analytics, marketing or advertising services, it is does not need to display any annoying privacy-related forced consent popup notices.

This is just sad. Ad-tech is pulling all its strings to push public opinion against pro-privacy legislation and you take their story for a ride towards self promotion. Let me reword this for you:

----

GDPR: Parachute believes strongly in the privacy practices set by GDPR and similar legislation but is neither incorporated in any nation with such laws, nor does it subjugate itself to a legal framework of adequacy, with the sole exception of this privacy policy. Privacy Shield Certifications are a scam anyway. Parachute offers a direct contact for privacy related issues, but does not accept the authority of your local data protection agency.Please note that with the ToS you accept the governing Law of the State of New York, and with our second "legal text privacy policy" you explicitly authorize the export of personal information to the USA.

AdTech: The Parachute app does not use any tracking, analytics, marketing or advertising services, including persistent cookies, which would require additional explicit consent. If you are wondering why there is no annoying privacy-related consent gathering popup, that is because we believe in privacy and data minimization and only use what is absolutely essential to provide our service.

Essential Third Party Services: ...