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Smartphones with Qualcomm chip secretly send personal data to Qualcomm

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Re: Smartphones with Qualcomm chip secretly send personal data to Qualcomm

#261

Post by jtbayly »

rootusrootus wrote: post #175
dcow wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me put it into perspective. 1) AFAIK Teslas cannot be driven remotely. But even if they could Tesla is not using cars for errands, like wtf c’mon. And if they wanted to do that and paid me for it, I might be interested in helping the environment. 2) Tesla is able to remotely unlock a vehicle if they verify the owner. This replaces a call to a locksmith and/or the towing company and is way more convenient. So yes,…

> wtf c’mon 100% agree. WTF. I'm losing a bit of faith recently in HN, a significant number of people seem to have gone full tinfoil hat. Edit: downvote all you want, nutters, but this entire discussion is mostly people ranting about things we don't even know to be true, with the justification "well if they aren't for sure doing it now, they will!" What happened to being data driven?

If by “data driven” you mean we have to ignore history and common sense, we’ll, yeah I guess I don’t believe in being data driven.

Re: Smartphones with Qualcomm chip secretly send personal data to Qualcomm

#262

Post by jandrese »

amelius wrote: post #163
JohnFen wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will, because there is a wealth of used cars that don't have any of that stuff in them.

Yes but at some point combustion engine cars will probably be banned.

Not banned, but gas will become too expensive to operate them except in special circumstances. Once we start factoring in the cost to recapture the carbon emitted from combustion engines they will be instantly uneconomical.

Re: Smartphones with Qualcomm chip secretly send personal data to Qualcomm

#263

Post by steve_adams_86 »

sizzle wrote: post #246
rolph wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

me too, and i also remove the camera[s], and put a dab of urethane over the hole. if i know there is an accelerometer i cut Voltage, and shunt it to ground

What’s the privacy issue with accelerometer?

> Drawing from existing literature, we found that accelerometer data alone may be sufficient to obtain information about a device holder's location, activities, health condition, body features, gender, age, personality traits, and emotional state. Acceleration signals can even be used to uniquely identify a person based on biometric movement patterns and to reconstruct sequences of text entered into a device, including passwords.

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3309074.3309076

Re: Smartphones with Qualcomm chip secretly send personal data to Qualcomm

#264

Post by cpv »

sizzle wrote: post #246
rolph wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

me too, and i also remove the camera[s], and put a dab of urethane over the hole. if i know there is an accelerometer i cut Voltage, and shunt it to ground

What’s the privacy issue with accelerometer?

There was a research in 2011 about using the accelerometer to log your keystrokes https://www.extremetech.com/internet/92946-a-wiggly-approach...

Re: Smartphones with Qualcomm chip secretly send personal data to Qualcomm

#265

Post by dcow »

JohnFen wrote: post #212
dcow wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if we’re arguing semantics or what at this point but it’s not a backdoor if it’s advertised as part of the product that consumers pay for. It’s just a product feature that needs to be secure like any other— frontdoor . If you’re not comfortable with that feature then don’t buy the car. But don’t go spewing certifiable nonsense about how Tesla backdoors your car and steals your personal data for profit. T…

> If you’re not comfortable with that feature then don’t buy the car. This was the only point I was actually making, yes. > But don’t go spewing certifiable nonsense about how Tesla backdoors your car and steals your personal data for profit. Aside from niggles about what constitutes a "back door", I was not doing that. > There is nothing in their terms or privacy policy that indicates this is happening, and data col…

> I'm uncomfortable with their data collection

Again, I have no idea what you mean by "their data collection". What data are they collecting and how specifically is it being used in an untrustworthy, and harmful way? Our interests are aligned to get to the bottom of how Tesla handles data, because I don't want to own a car that is spying on me and you want a world where the internet doesn't exist (only half tongue in cheek).

EDIT: Also just so you're aware, did you know the car part of a Tesla works entirely offline at 100% capacity? Did you know the infotainment system, hud, etc. software can crash and you remain in complete control and full operation of the vehicle while it restarts. If you went in an disconnected the LTE antenna you'd have a connection-less Tesla. The fact that Tesla has designed the car this way speaks just a little to the quality of their engineering. The car is more like a plane than you'd think.

Re: Smartphones with Qualcomm chip secretly send personal data to Qualcomm

#266

Post by mattmaroon »

mdasen wrote: post #209
freedomben wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right RISC-V just existing won't save us. I mentioned in a sibling comment, but my hope is that it leads to more competition so there are at least options. It probably is naive since these days there are tech startups and tech giants, and any startup that starts to gain traction will go for an exit strategy to be acquired, then it will killed. So things are probably not going to get much better. Perhaps though…

> my hope is that it leads to more competition so there are at least options There are already lots of options within the ARM instruction set. The problem is that Qualcomm makes the best modems and the best (non-Apple) processors and uses their wireless patents and chip lead to squash competition. > Perhaps though, with RISC-V options there could be a real solid open source option (aka a Linux phone) The issue isn't…

“ The ARM instruction set isn't what is keeping the tech giants in power.”

Right, it’s the fact that (I’m assuming) simple stuff like checking my email is a nightmare on any phone that isn’t iPhone or Android. I know I could probably switch email clients, but is that worth it?

And all the other apps that either suck on the web or don’t even exist.

It’s such a chicken and egg problem that even Microsoft couldn’t crack it, despite making a perfectly good OS and hardware. By the time you are two years late to the party it’s already over.

Re: Smartphones with Qualcomm chip secretly send personal data to Qualcomm

#267

Post by dcow »

nyarlathotep_ wrote: post #254
dcow wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replying to both of you, first off which manufacturers let you choose the 3rd party remote access authorized agent? And which won’t machine new keys if you send them a request and your vin or key code. Second, Tesla comms are encrypted. Anyway, if you don't want to use vehicles which communicate with a server then good for you. Really. But if you’re taking such a stance I hope it’s based on informed data and consiste…

> Anyway, if you don't want to use vehicles which communicate with a server then good for you. Really. But if you’re taking such a stance I hope it’s based on informed data and consistent principles and not cringy FUD. Why can't we just hold the opinion that HTTP and operating an automobile are two separate things entirely? I've been driving for 20 years without web crap and I've never sensed the need to share teleme…

> Why can't we just hold the opinion that HTTP and operating an automobile are two separate things entirely?

I guess because people want to listen to Spotify while they drive and have navigation data fed to their HUD...

Re: Smartphones with Qualcomm chip secretly send personal data to Qualcomm

#268

Post by annoyingnoob »

freedomben wrote: post #21

This seems like much bigger news than it's being received as. Sure, other chip makers do sketchy things, but is that really where we're at in 2023? We're so beaten down by proprietary user-disrespecting hardware/software that we just shrug it off? This makes me mad. I'm so sick of this type of thing. It's a horrible time too because the embedded 5G chips are about to be part of everything , sending telemetry back abo…

Reads like an ad to me.

Re: Smartphones with Qualcomm chip secretly send personal data to Qualcomm

#269

Post by [deleted] »

nyarlathotep_ wrote: post #254
dcow wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replying to both of you, first off which manufacturers let you choose the 3rd party remote access authorized agent? And which won’t machine new keys if you send them a request and your vin or key code. Second, Tesla comms are encrypted. Anyway, if you don't want to use vehicles which communicate with a server then good for you. Really. But if you’re taking such a stance I hope it’s based on informed data and consiste…

> Anyway, if you don't want to use vehicles which communicate with a server then good for you. Really. But if you’re taking such a stance I hope it’s based on informed data and consistent principles and not cringy FUD. Why can't we just hold the opinion that HTTP and operating an automobile are two separate things entirely? I've been driving for 20 years without web crap and I've never sensed the need to share teleme…

[deleted]

Re: Smartphones with Qualcomm chip secretly send personal data to Qualcomm

#270

Post by smoldesu »

Bud wrote: post #64
trustingtrust wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iPhone involves a lot of telemetry which Apple sends it to itself. We don’t know what kind of contract Apple has with Qualcomm but if it involves Apple anonymising and sending the data to Qualcomm for using its chips then it’s likely going to be the same just in a different form. I’m pretty sure Qualcomm would like some kind of telemetry from its partners it sells chips to.

That's actually not likely at all. There's no reason for Apple to trash its reputation by doing something stupid like this for Qualcomm's benefit.

The iPhone has plenty of it's own telemetry like OCSP and Find My. No need to play cats vs dogs here.
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