Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

old.reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 381 posts

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

#81

Post by rootusrootus »

Bud wrote: post #50
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…

No. We do NOT need fucking removable storage to fix this. What we need, to fix this, is to enforce felony charges against the kind of fuckers who do this, and put them in prison for 20 years, and stop victim-blaming, and stop the insane medieval attitudes about nudity, and slap every single fucking person who espouses this kind of bullshit upside the head, daily, every single day, until society is finally purged of t…

> This isn't a product design issue. It's a punish evil people issue.

It is both. A secure design would not allow this to happen. But when it does, the perpetrator should be punished severely.

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

#82

Post by gerash »

oxymoran wrote: post #35

This isn’t OP fault but it boggles my mind that people still use google products. How many times do companies like google and Facebook need to show that they don’t have your best interest at heart before you stop using their products? People won’t even buy genetically modified food but yet they have no problem shelling out thousands of dollars to authoritarian, surveillance centric parasites. Please stop.

I understand that you like to think this issue is somehow restricted to Google or FB but the exact same thing has happened to someone who sent their iPhone to Apple. So slow down: https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/7/22522560/apple-repair-mult...

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

#83

Post by JohnFen »

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…

Agreed. I think the mistake here wasn't the nudes, it was sending in the phone without wiping it first. Never trust anyone with your phone.

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

#84

Post by smoldesu »

KineticLensman wrote: post #75
slantyyz wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Sounds like a design issue, no? If Apple implemented it, they'd call the feature "Secure Liferaft" or something equally silly, but I have no doubt in my mind that they could engineer a proper solution for it. Today's users go out of their way to hide files and folders, so why not give them a chance to do so the right way? The technology is there, all you need is a little marketing pizzazz and a 30 second ad spot with Billie Eilish in the background.

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

#85

Post by fartattack »

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.

How do you "act accordingly" when you want to partake in sharing digital private documents with your wife? In order to follow that advice, you'd have to stop using smart phones entirely, and that's not really feasible today.

Sure, it's lurid in this case because it was nudes, but this could have just as easily been identity theft or something more mundane but equally wrong for Google to access.

No, this is what we have laws for. What Google did is wrong and if the person responsible cannot be criminally prosecuted, we should seek legislative changes to enable prosecution in cases like this in the future. This is not merely a matter of individuals trusting Google too much. The individuals don't have much choice; that's where the law can step in.

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

#87

Post by celsoazevedo »

Bud wrote: post #50
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…

No. We do NOT need fucking removable storage to fix this. What we need, to fix this, is to enforce felony charges against the kind of fuckers who do this, and put them in prison for 20 years, and stop victim-blaming, and stop the insane medieval attitudes about nudity, and slap every single fucking person who espouses this kind of bullshit upside the head, daily, every single day, until society is finally purged of t…

In some places, people lose their lives if they do something bad. Yet, people still do bad things. I guess taking someone's life isn't enough of a punishment?

Laws discourage certain behaviours. It doesn't stop them.

Regarding victim blaming, obviously this person isn't to blame, but it seems that even suggestions to be cautious are seen as "victim blaming".

When you tell a kid to look to both sides when crossing the road even if it's green, you're not blaming them for a possible accident. It's just that sometimes people ignore traffic lights. And when you tell someone not to give their pin or send a device with sensitive content for repair, you're not blaming them. You're just telling them to be careful because sometimes stuff like this happens.

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

#88

Post by dinkelberg »

jeffbee wrote: post #80
dinkelberg wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I guess it is true that you can erase an entire flash device in a split second.

But that doesn't help you if the erase command was not implemented correctly.

And I am sure that you cannot implement an erase command from within the operating system. It has to be implemented in the flash memory controller. So if your hardware manufacturer got it wrong, you can't fix it.

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

#89

Post by gpm »

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.

For the buyback program that you can use when you buy a pixel, Google requires that you factory reset the phone before sending it in, and threatens to not give you any money if you don't. Presumably to avoid exactly this (especially since it seems like it goes direct to a third party, that Google probably doesn't trust all that much).

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

#90

Post by Broken_Hippo »

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?

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. YMMV depending on where you live in the US. There is a reason most politicians (in the US) wouldn't get caught with nudes and I'm guessing that in some areas of the world, it would be even more detrimental to your life. It is the same line of thinking that punishes women for being "sluts" but are OK with men having a series of one night stands.

Post reply on HN