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

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

#211

Post by rootusrootus »

paulgdp wrote: post #124

To be fair, when sending a Pixel for reparations, Google very clearly and explicitly asks to factory_reset the phone. I personally didn't reset it when I sent my Pixel 3 to fix the charging port because my Pixel was fully encrypted. All Pixels are encrypted by default as long as you have any kind of lock method enabled (PIN, password, shape...). I don't really understand how this person got his files in cleartext and…

It is possible the victim made some bad choices. It does not make it fair for Google employees/contractors/whatever to violate their privacy and access their personal information, then post it online.

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

#212

Post by Arrath »

kroltan wrote: post #141
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do not confuse the ability to use a phone or laptop with technical knowledge. People know how to use apps, but all the technical stuff is abstracted away. I'm pretty technical (As is nearly everyone on HN), and I have no idea where my photos are stored on my Android's file system. I have no idea where the APKs are for all my installed apps, or where their saved data sits.

But if _everything_ is always saved on the card, then you don't need the technical knowledge. Removing the card would leave the phone in a "factory clean" condition.

Assuming the phone didn't come factory configured to helpfully backup your photos to the cloud, or that you disabled that setting if it did.

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

#213

Post by blfr »

jaclaz wrote: post #38
raxxorrax wrote: post #2

Really should think about just paying another few hundred bucks and just keep the device if it contains nude photos of your wife which you cannot wipe. Don't send that device anywhere... Provided this story is true, I would guess the device might never have reached Google and it might have been stolen on the way there. Don't know what that would mean for liability.

BTW it seems: > They had access to the Google account which is where the photos were. like the photos were not on the device, but rather on some Google service, but the phone had remained logged in that account. It should be possible in such cases to access the Goggle account with another device and change password (I believe, kicking out the broken phone login).

You can even log out particular devices on account.google.com (security tab → your devices). This is a weak protection, however, since they're probably cached on the phone.

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

#214

Post by gopalv »

bedhead wrote: post #60
throwaway81523 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this is yet another reason to want phones to have removable storage (micro sd card). So private photos can go onto the card instead of built-in storage, and you can remove the card if you have to send in the phone. I don't take nudes but I tend to use my phone as an impromptu photocopier for stuff like bills and receipts, so the photos are full of private info such as account numbers. I worry about that sometime…

How about make it so that the "hidden" photos on a phone require a security code/biometric to access? I've always been shocked that this isn't the case with iOS (don't know Android), it seems so obvious and simple.

> How about make it so that the "hidden" photos on a phone require a security code/biometric to access?

Pixel with the latest Android should have that ("Move to Locked Folder" [1]), though as with all security things it is annoying to use in a lot of ways. Doesn't work for SMS images or Whatsapp (Signal is much nicer on this front, but images on Signal get lost if a phone is bricked - the account backup/transfer method sucks a bit).

[1] - https://support.google.com/photos/answer/10694388?hl=en

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

#216

Post by seabird »

eloisius wrote: post #73
ccn0p wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I see it every time the topic comes up I hear you, and agree wholeheartedly that there is "absolutely nothing wrong with this", but maybe if the topic keeps coming up, people should have less trust in the companies (and their respective flawed human supply chains) that keep our information.... and act accordingly. Unfortunately that's easier said than done these days.

Sure, but you probably wouldn’t ever hear someone say “maybe you should have had less trust” if Google employees snooped on your Drive account to steal financial records or something like that to use against you. Why do we tend to treat people like they’re asking for it when their nudes get compromised?

But you would. People here preach that every single day.

If you had highly sensitive info of a non-sexual nature on Google Drive that was going to have a massive negative impact on your life if it got leaked, half of this site would still be saying "that's awful, but you can't trust Google" if that happened.

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

#217

Post by Johnny555 »

ghoward wrote: post #208
Johnny555 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not always an option -- my last android phone died with a reboot loop. It was several years old so I opted to discard and replace it (after opening it up and snapping the main circuit board in half), but if it was newer and I wanted warranty service, I'd have no choice but to send it in for repair, unwiped. In theory, device encryption would protect my data unless the service center has some way around it.

> That's not always an option -- my last android phone died with a reboot loop. You're not wrong, but for future reference, there is a way to stop such a reboot loop; I did it just yesterday with my wife's phone. (Of course, it was a Pixel, so it might not be on every phone.) You do it by holding power and down volume until it says "Command not found", then you hold power and volume up until you get a menu. One of th…

I spent days going through every blog post I could find for tips on how to fix it, including booting to recovery mode -- it would reboot as I scrolled through the recovery menu and even when I got as far as trying to do the factory reset, it would reboot before it even started the reset. I let it reboot itself until it ran out of battery and waited a day after that to let it completely drain. Even tried putting it in the freezer.

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

#218

Post by maccolgan »

notreallyserio wrote: post #131
IncRnd wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course the fault lies with the person who posted the images online. That person also violated state and federal laws. There is no doubt about that. However, most people wouldn't knowingly leave nude images of their spouse on the car's back seat when getting the car serviced. In many ways this is similar. Edit: For people who think I'm blaming the victim, I am not. I thought that was clear, since I blamed the thief…

I don't know how broken the phone was, but it's possible for a phone to be so damaged that you can't wipe it's contents prior to sending it in for service. I love car analogies (who doesn't), I think this is more like your car being on fire and asking a firefighter to put it out, while hoping they won't find and share any documents they find in the back seat.

So what do you do when your car is on fire but there's also nude photos in the back seat? Asking genuinely, don't know what would be the best thing to do...

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

#219

Post by rootusrootus »

marcodiego wrote: post #44

Wait! Text was deleted. How can we know this is legit?

Even if the poster had not deleted the text (I saw it before they deleted it, and the text is posted in this thread, however), that would not do anything to make it legit. It is just someone making a claim on the Internet.

It is good fodder for a security discussion, though. The merits will have to be decided in a court of law.

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

#220

Post by stemlord »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #90
eloisius wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but you probably wouldn’t ever hear someone say “maybe you should have had less trust” if Google employees snooped on your Drive account to steal financial records or something like that to use against you. Why do we tend to treat people like they’re asking for it when their nudes get compromised?

Why do we tend to treat people like they’re asking for it when their nudes get compromised? Because nudity is akin to sex and sexual ways, which are taboo in many societies. Upstanding citizens do not have nudes, in general. Especially women or nudes hinting at same-sex romance. It isn't right, but it is . Edit: I'm not saying I agree with this. But it doesn't take much to see folks putting others down for nudity. YM…

Neither your very strict, seemingly religious-based and ethically dubious idea of an "upstanding citizen", nor anyone else's, should ever justify someone's reputation being irreparably compromised by a professional phone repair person / google employee on the job.

Anyway, your comment doesn't seem to have much purpose but to weirdly say "this isn't right, but it actually is right."

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