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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

#361
post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really bleak way to look at digital devices and their role in the world. Should you only write things you want the world to read on a computer, and for everything else, just use pen and paper?

Yes. Anything you write into your computer has the potential to be shared. The same way anything you write and send in the mail has the potential to be shared.

And yet, if GMail published email exchanges of a protected nature between someone and their lawyer, would you just throw up your hands and say, alas, digital communication is cursed?

Some digital activity should be considered private, and violating that privacy should have legal and social consequences.

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

#362

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…

I hope they're smart enough to sue google for a several million dollars. I bet they could have their choice of quality lawyers to do this case for that 33% cut.

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

#363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming any of it is true, and he isn't just LARPing based on what he read about Apple a few months ago. I'd put the odds at 50/50.

That's pretty high. The default assumption about any personal story on reddit is that it's all lies.

Good point. I've seen more than a few of these that turned out to just be a creative writing exercise.

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

#364

I've worked in these contract cellphone repair/refurbishment facilities many years ago, the big warehouses where telecoms and manufacturers send these warranty phones to be triaged and repaired, and let me tell you, something like this is not surprising at all. Most of the people there did good work, but all it takes is one. Personally I'd never send my phone in to repair, and I'm skittish about buying any refurbishe…

I would guess they (if they're not LARPing) wouldn't do this if they could just afford a new phone.

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

#365
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern Android actually does support disk encryption. And the Pixels even have TPMs that should (?) safeguard the key, preventing offline brute forcing the unlock pattern. I wonder what happened here that this did not work...

I wonder what kinds of tickets, if any, justify them asking you for your unlock pattern.

none since they can wipe the phone without a passcode. This is true for both iphone and android phones. I'm not familiar with off-brand OS phones though.

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

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This week I was in a chat with the REAL support of a crypto currency. Unable to help me with my problem at first (we eventually figured it out), they felt they hit a dead end and said: "ok, just send us your wallet.dat, we'll fix it". I know those guy were the real deal. I knew they would not try to steal the money I had on this wallet, because it was so little it was not even worth the time. Yet, the fact they asked…

I once got my screen replaced at one of the phone fix-it places. It's a decent sized chain, not just some rando. On the form you fill out during drop-off it asks you for your unlock code.

What did they say when you didn't include the passcode?

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

#367
post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get your anger here, but pure punitive measures won't solve this. This is easy to prove in that it hasn't solved any other sort of crime. One, the correlation between "do a crime" and "do the time" is quite low. Look at the stats for sexual assault (0.25%), robbery (0.2%), and assault and battery (0.3%): https://www.rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system Even for murder, the US's clearance rate is only about…

We don't punish out of some fantasy that it will "solve" crime. At least I hope we don't. I'm under no such delusions, I promise. We punish in order to hopefully deter, in at least some cases, though. And sometimes, we punish because it's simply the right thing to do, because people deserve it. This is such a case. They busted into these phones; that was bad enough. Then they searched for the most personal and compro…

You were the one who said, "We do NOT need fucking removable storage to fix this," before going on to glory in punishment. If you now admit that punishment isn't enough, then presumably you now agree that we should do things beyond punishment to fix this.

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

#368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 doesn't have to be "wrong" for it to be stupid, and trusting your private life to a device you literally do not own is. This isn't victim blaming, this is recognizing the fallacious logic that most people have when approaching this subject. Call it tech ill…

I imagine a lot of people sharing nude photos don't especially mind if they become public (I personally don't, I've had many partners who don't fear this). So they aren't "dumb" for taking a risk they are comfortable with. Nor are they dumb to expect the criminals to pay if they do become a victim. Both things can be true without anyone needing to be "dumb" as you seem so desperate to assume.

> So they aren't "dumb" for taking a risk they are comfortable with.

They are dumb, precisely because the risk is unquantifiable to them until realized, then it's too late to act.

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

#369

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…

> my big question is whether this phone is password enabled I read all the comments before it was deleted. In one of the replies the OP stated the phone had a smashed screen and would not turn on*, but had no screen lock/password *his words not mine, it is unclear if he knew the distinction between zero display output and not turning on

[deleted]

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

#370

[dubious - discuss] There's a few things that make this pretty unlikely. Google doesn't triage or repair the phones themselves, they contract it out just like everyone else. And the people they contract it out to almost certainly have procedures in place which are meant to ensure that neither the devices themselves nor the data on them get out. I'm not saying it's false, but I would definitely take it with a grain of…

False. T-Mobile for example had a major device theft issue with their mailed in device place for the upgrade program they used to run. No surprise, the process was to unlock phone, turn of find my iphone and send in the phone WITHOUT TRACKING to this random low bidder. This was early in program, you couldn't turn device in at store (I tried). So I filmed myself mailing the device, because without a tracking number on…

Gonna reply here since 4 different people decided to say the same thing without actually reading my post.

I never said it wasn't possible. But getting the lynching party out is a bit premature. Just because someone says something on the Internet does not make it true. Bet y'all still think Trump is still gonna magically become president and kill the elite pedophile cannibal cabal, huh?

Never said the processes they have in place were perfect. But being smart enough to exploit a hole in the process, and dumb enough to then make illegal posts on social media with location and all - are kinda at odds with each other.

Until you can show me any evidence that this case is real - which, of course, you can't for the next ~years because the only place that evidence should show up is in court - you can take your "False." and stick it somewhere.

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