Pixel sent to Google for replacement. They used it to post wife's nudes online • Hacker News Board

Re: Pixel sent to Google for replacement. They used it to post wife's nudes online

#181

Post by jfrunyon » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

flatiron wrote: post #115

It was deleted. Here is the OG Text: "Ok so this just happened. Buckle up. About a month ago my wife broke her pixel phone. It couldn't be turned on so we couldn't wipe it. We contact Google and used the device care to get an RMA. Today someone posted nude pictures of my wife and I to her social media accounts. They accessed her Google account and tried to lock us out. They used her PayPal to send someone $5 (a test…

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6160491?hl=en

If the phone doesn't turn on you can still queue up a wipe from Find My Device which would've prevented this.

And no, it was clearly not "password enabled".

Re: Pixel sent to Google for replacement. They used it to post wife's nudes online

#182

Post by agilob » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #164

Tagbert wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case, the phone would not turn on prior to repair and could not be wiped.

How did the person conducting repair power it on and unlock it then? Edit: I mean how did they bypass the lock screen?

>All Pixels are encrypted by default as long as you have any kind of lock method enabled (PIN, password, shape...).

No lock method?

Re: Pixel sent to Google for replacement. They used it to post wife's nudes online

#183

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #164

Tagbert wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case, the phone would not turn on prior to repair and could not be wiped.

How did the person conducting repair power it on and unlock it then? Edit: I mean how did they bypass the lock screen?

[deleted]

Re: Pixel sent to Google for replacement. They used it to post wife's nudes online

#184

Post by dahart » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

pixl97 wrote: post #156

dahart wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Upstanding citizens do not have nudes, in general. What makes you sure about this? What evidence do you have?

What's great about this is you don't need evidence. People just need to believe it. People at large have a large number of vices they do in private, but the moment our private lives are made public it is very common for others to point the finger and say how dare they do that, even when said person does the same thing.

I remember hearing a court case where a small video rental shop was accused of renting vulgar content by someone claiming that the community standards didn’t allow pornography. This was in an area that is predominantly religious. So it hinged on whether it was true or not that people viewed such material in private. The defense was able to find both rental and internet traffic data for the region demonstrating viewing porn was basically the norm for a large percentage of the community. The court found for the video store, but IIRC the legal costs still destroyed the business.

Re: Pixel sent to Google for replacement. They used it to post wife's nudes online

#185

Post by wpietri » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:37 PM UTC

VortexDream wrote: post #4

I'm sick of people, so I'm not going to read the inevitable comments that are going to come. Look, face it, some people like taking nude photos of themselves and they like sharing them with their partners. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. It's not their fault if something like this happens. People should be able to feel secure in the tech that they use, in the companies that they entrust their information…

Thanks for posting this. I get why people do the victim-blaming thing; it lets them feel smart and superior, two feelings I have been known to enjoy.

But it's a fundamentally bad way to approach analyzing safety issues. For those who really want to dig in on the topic, I strongly recommend Dekker's "A Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error'": https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Q8XCSFI/ref=dbs_a_def_r...

It's nominally about examining airplane crashes. But he breaks down into great detail why the default analytical model is entirely inappropriate in ways that makes real safety improvement impossible. And it's the same set of analytical mistakes you see in a lot of blame-related behavior.

Re: Pixel sent to Google for replacement. They used it to post wife's nudes online

#186

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:37 PM UTC

VortexDream wrote: post #4

I'm sick of people, so I'm not going to read the inevitable comments that are going to come. Look, face it, some people like taking nude photos of themselves and they like sharing them with their partners. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. It's not their fault if something like this happens. People should be able to feel secure in the tech that they use, in the companies that they entrust their information…

[deleted]

Re: Pixel sent to Google for replacement. They used it to post wife's nudes online

#187

Post by KKKKkkkk1 » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

I read a history of the NSA recently [0], and what struck me is that every time the NSA's code-breaking techniques were invalidated, this was due to a US agent leaking secrets to adversaries. If the NSA cannot address every insider threat, why do we expect tech companies to be hermetically sealed?

[0] Code Warriors, Stephen Budiansky (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/236807/code-warrior...).

Re: Pixel sent to Google for replacement. They used it to post wife's nudes online

#188

Post by OldManAndTheCpp » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #164

Tagbert wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case, the phone would not turn on prior to repair and could not be wiped.

How did the person conducting repair power it on and unlock it then? Edit: I mean how did they bypass the lock screen?

They repaired it, presumably.

Re: Pixel sent to Google for replacement. They used it to post wife's nudes online

#189

Post by BiteCode_dev » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #163

beervirus wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not the victim’s fault. But still… it’s only prudent to take precautions.

While true, the counterpoint is that in practice nobody can take sufficient precautions, we only think we can until it goes wrong.

Trust, but goes with Pareto precautions.

Arabs have a wonderful proverb for that: "trust in God, yet tie your camel"

Re: Pixel sent to Google for replacement. They used it to post wife's nudes online

#190

Post by jfrunyon » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

dandare wrote: post #12

How do you disable your old phones especially those those that do not work (due to shattered screen mostly) before giving them up for recycling or buyback? I am always worried someone will fix and misuse my old phone.

- Set a password on your phone. I dunno about iPhones but for recent Androids, that will encrypt all files on the phone. Voila. You're done.

- Queue up a wipe remotely which will take place as soon as the phone is turned on.