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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

#71

Post by duxup »

slantyyz wrote: post #56
duxup wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like removable SD card is a tech person solution but ... kinda doesn't solve it for a lot of folks. Most folks are just going to take nudes and not strategize much and expect them to remain private as part of the typical photo taking and sharing workflow.

> I feel like removable SD card is a tech person solution but... As an older person, I find this observation very interesting. Today, I would consider people in general to be much more technically knowledgeable compared to people 20+ years ago. And yet, 20 years ago, removable storage was quite common, and probably expected of most devices.

You can be older and a tech person, I'm older ;)

People are more capable but security like this needs to just be a part of the usual workflow or problems will continue to occur.

Moving files around on a device, extra steps, just doesn't work for the masses.

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

#72

Post by slantyyz »

vmception wrote: post #28
encryptluks2 wrote: post #10

Not here to victim blame, but just point out some things to help others in the future. 1. Use a password and encryption 2. If you can still turn on the device, wipe it before you send it off for an RMA. 3. If you can't access the device, login to your account online and remove access to it. You should do this even after you wipe it. 4. Save everything sensitive on removable storage medium by default.

These guys sent it in for RMA because it couldn't be turned on Also the photos were in the google account so none of this advice would have mattered anyway aside from the advice #4 about not doing it, which is moot. They and many people probably auto backup all photos on the device to the google account. Not sure if there is a way to distinguish which photos are too sensitive for online backup with that service.

IIRC, in the Reddit comments, the OP said the phone was not locked with a passcode at all, which is presumably how the bad guys got access to basically everything.

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

#73

Post by eloisius »

ccn0p wrote: post #51
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…

>> 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?

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

#74

Post by sannee »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #31

I've lost a laptop in an airport shuttle with intimate pics on it once, and got worried sick. After that life lession, I always made sure to have a veracrypt partition for this stuff. But a separate, offline device is better of course.

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...

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

#75

Post by KineticLensman »

slantyyz wrote: post #56
duxup wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like removable SD card is a tech person solution but ... kinda doesn't solve it for a lot of folks. Most folks are just going to take nudes and not strategize much and expect them to remain private as part of the typical photo taking and sharing workflow.

> I feel like removable SD card is a tech person solution but... As an older person, I find this observation very interesting. Today, I would consider people in general to be much more technically knowledgeable compared to people 20+ years ago. And yet, 20 years ago, removable storage was quite common, and probably expected of most devices.

> Today, I would consider people in general to be much more technically knowledgeable compared to people 20+ years ago

Very few people know how apps actually store files on a mobile device and as people increasingly use phones / tablets instead of PCs their knowledge of PC file systems reduces. So for many people, copying photos from a phone (or cloud backup) to a computer could be quite a challenge.

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

#76

Post by hef19898 »

bigyellow wrote: post #65
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…

> 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…

Well, previously it was digital cameras and your PC. Smart phones replaced both for a lot of people.

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

#77

Post by Enginerrrd »

stinos wrote: post #48
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…

People should be able to feel secure in the tech that they use, in the companies that they entrust their information with. I can never tell whether I'm paranoid, or worried for good reasons, but cases like these + mass leaks which happen occasionally are basically the reason why I don't have this secure feeling at all for anything which isn't on an offline device which is in my hands or device-side encypted then put…

I still get that feeling for the most part with open source self-hosted stuff and devices running as open as possible software. Could someone hack my up-to-date linux server behind my VPN? Yeah. But it feels a lot less likely than any other device. If it's not an open source OS with a good track record, I feel like every key stroke, swipe, or picture is spied on.

On devices I trust less, like my android phone, I feel better than default (but not perfectly comfortable) about open source encryption software and the stuff stored there.

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

#78

Post by rodolphoarruda »

slantyyz wrote: post #56
duxup wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like removable SD card is a tech person solution but ... kinda doesn't solve it for a lot of folks. Most folks are just going to take nudes and not strategize much and expect them to remain private as part of the typical photo taking and sharing workflow.

> I feel like removable SD card is a tech person solution but... As an older person, I find this observation very interesting. Today, I would consider people in general to be much more technically knowledgeable compared to people 20+ years ago. And yet, 20 years ago, removable storage was quite common, and probably expected of most devices.

The majority of young people I know (in Brazil) doesn't know the concept of "file". So adding/keeping files in SD Cards is a task that requires some explanation.

Disclaimer: I'm also an older person.

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

#79

Post by Bud »

wutbrodo wrote: post #17
mabbo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? You're blaming the victim?

Where do you see blame in this comment? I see advice so others can learn from this unfortunate incident. Hell, she doesn't even use the phrase "should have". I really wish the masses had never heard the term "victim blaming". 95% of the time i see it used, it's nonsensical pearl-clutching insisting that no one can ever take steps to protect themselves.

The blame is pervasive through the entire comment. If you can't see that, you need to reboot, install updates, and look again. It was a very brief comment and its ENTIRE CONTENT was a criticism of the victim's conduct and a suggestion about how the victim should alter said conduct (and sacrifice a lot of money) to avoid Bad Things, rather than the right fucking answer here, which is to put everyone involved with this in jail for 20 years and the publicize that Google is being evil again.

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

#80

Post by jeffbee »

dinkelberg wrote: post #49
throwaway81523 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if there is a way to connect to it through usb in order to wipe it.

It might not be possible to wipe the data off the flash memory, due to how flash memory works. As you can only reset bits on the flash memory some amount of times, flash memory controllers try to avoid resetting bits and they try to distribute resets evenly on the memory (called wear leveling), so that it doesn't happen that parts of the memory are already worn out while other parts are healthy. So "deleting" and eve…

This is FUD. Flash is fundamentally easier to wipe than hard disk drives. You’re just using a defective mental model for the process. While magnetic recording needs to be overwritten, flash memory does not. Flash has a dedicated erase command. Flash can only be written if it was erased. You can erase an entire flash device in a split second.
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