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Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

privacyinternational.org

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Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#101

Post by CaptainZapp »

DarkWiiPlayer wrote: post #77
Mirioron wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm often critical of GDPR, but stuff like this is why I think it's probably necessary to have.

GDPR is 100% necessary and fundamentally a good idea. It has a lot of problems that just show how incompetent politicians can get on a bad day, but that doesn't invalidate the core idea.

It has a lot of problems that just show how incompetent politicians can get on a bad day

Mind elaborating on them?

The only potential issue, which I see, is some ambigiouty. However, I don't see how you could craft a legal frame work without some ambiguity, which needs to be resolved by the courts at one point.

Unless your business model is dreck, I really don't see any issues with the GDPR as such.

Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#102

Post by Kaiyou »

DarkWiiPlayer wrote: post #77
Mirioron wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm often critical of GDPR, but stuff like this is why I think it's probably necessary to have.

GDPR is 100% necessary and fundamentally a good idea. It has a lot of problems that just show how incompetent politicians can get on a bad day, but that doesn't invalidate the core idea.

The problem I see is that politicians don't seem to have any good days.

Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#103

Post by enitihas »

abtom wrote: post #50
Alterlife wrote: post #39

This article focuses on the problems that truecaller poses for 'non-users". As a non-user of truecaller in India myself, I find myself in the minority. It seems I get none of the benefits (improved spam filtering, the chance to see who is calling me), and in the 'prisoners dilemma' sense, it appears I would loose nothing by installing it, because they already have my contact information. However, this is only half th…

If you're a non-user and do not wish your information to appear on the app, you can unlist your number here - https://www.truecaller.com/unlisting Though I do not agree with the method where as a non-user I need to manually opt-out of the service, it does seem to work. My number is no longer visible on the app.

I tried using the unlisting UI, but it says I need to install the app and deactivate my account before unlisting. When I install the app, it refuses to run unless I grant it all sorts of permissions. So it seems before unlisting, I need to give truecaller my data. This absolutely ridiculous.

Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#104

Post by ddhdhdhdhdhdh »

gcb0 wrote: post #38
duxup wrote: post #2

This is one of my concerns ever since the first app asked for my contacts. You could be a mountain man and value your privacy.... but if you just know someone who uses tech you are exposed in any number of ways. In the US things like third-party doctrine have not aged well in the information age as just communicating with people can expose you in ways you can't ever control.

Blackberry android phones have a feature where it notifies you when any app accessed some resource that requires OS level permissions, such as contacts, gps, etc. Whatsapp and other facebook apps, access my contact list every 3 minutes.

Looks like a good reason to delete these apps.

Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#105

Post by CaptainZapp »

yardstick wrote: post #90
alanh wrote: post #63

Wow, is it just me or is this a mountain-out-of-a-molehill situation? This is not fundamentally any different than “report spam” for email, or a user posting “is 800-xxx-xxxx a legit number?” online, or sending a contact card to a few million of your closest friends. I appreciate the situation that the journalist found herself in, but if she wants her number to be a secret, she needs to make sure the people she calls…

It’s quite different. A report spam function wouldn’t include (or shouldn’t include!) the identity of a person. If it does then it’s going over and above a spam filtering service. Reporting a number as spam should then just result in future recipients seeing a “Probably Spam” or “Spam” etc based on reported levels on Spam vs Non-Spam reports for the number. But I do agree that the journalist should have practiced bet…

But I do agree that the journalist should have practiced better opsec and advised her sources that they probably don’t want her name to show up on their phone if she calls them at an inopportune time such as when around the very people she is investigating.

How do you secure against something that you're not even aware exists?

Maybe outsourcing operational security? But how can a journalist aford that?

Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#106

Post by dredmorbius »

DarkWiiPlayer wrote: post #80
iliketosleep wrote: post #8

This reminds me once again that the weakest link in the privacy chain today is the mobile phone number, especially since governments in many countries have forced people to link their number to a real ID. It's essentially become a ID number by proxy. However, in the case of the article, the reporter should know to inform her sources not to enter _any_ information linking to her real-world identity into their electron…

> However, in the case of the article, the reporter should know to inform her sources not to enter _any_ information linking to her real-world identity into their electronic devices. Yeah, that had me kinda puzzled as well. Sure, the app seems like a terrible idea, but ultimately it was one of her contacts who put that information into it.

Reporters talk to lots of people, who practice very poor tradecraft.

Which suggests: everything this story describes also applies to intelligence and law enforcement services. Imagine you're conducting espionage, or are tracking money laundering or drugs smuggling.

Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#107

Post by vanderZwan »

Kaiyou wrote: post #102
DarkWiiPlayer wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GDPR is 100% necessary and fundamentally a good idea. It has a lot of problems that just show how incompetent politicians can get on a bad day, but that doesn't invalidate the core idea.

The problem I see is that politicians don't seem to have any good days.

You are living in a complex, mostly functioning nation state where the majority of conflicts is resolved in a civil manner. Not in a small tribal society where you might be murdered by someone physically stronger than you simply because he lusts after your partner. That simple fact proves how hyperbolic and naive your statement is.

Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#108

Post by johnchristopher »

skizo wrote: post #95
johnchristopher wrote: post #89

This is great. I logged into the website to check if my number was collected. It is. So I click on "suggest a better name" in a naive attempt to erase myself from the grid. I can't because they "don't collect personal information about private individuals in the EU".

you can unlist your number here - https://www.truecaller.com/unlisting

Thanks ! How did you find it on the site ?

Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#109

Post by CaptainZapp »

visarga wrote: post #14

The title is wrong. There was no contract or agreement between the app and the journalist so there could be no betrayal.

There is no user agreement, let alone a contract, between Facebook and me.

I use none of their services and properties.

So are you arguing that it's right that they spy on me regardless? Like they do on any other human being who is not in a business relationship, whatsoever, with this company?

Re: Betrayed by an app she had never heard of

#110

Post by digital_voodoo »

I am in one of the regions where Truecaller is growing rapidly.

And I've found out that the best defence is a good offence: registering my number myself but with totally false information seems to supersede what other register about me. And that's what I did. Not with Truecaller, but with another app (CallApp) that seems less greedy with permissions.

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