Google Bans Apps With Hidden Data-Harvesting Software (wsj.com) 28
Google has yanked dozens of apps from its Google Play store after determining that they include a software element that surreptitiously harvests data. From a report: The Panamanian company that wrote the code, Measurement Systems S. de R.L., is linked through corporate records and web registrations to a Virginia defense contractor that does cyberintelligence, network-defense and intelligence-intercept work for U.S. national-security agencies. The code ran on millions of Android devices and has been found inside several Muslim prayer apps that have been downloaded more than 10 million times, as well as a highway-speed-trap detection app, a QR-code reading app and a number of other popular consumer apps, according to two researchers who discovered the behavior of the code in the course of auditing work they do searching for vulnerabilities in Android apps. They shared their findings with Google, a unit of Alphabet, federal privacy regulators and The Wall Street Journal.
Only dozens? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Only dozens? (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I was going to post... "Pot calling the kettle black!?" Sheesh! The entire android system calls home constantly!
Re: (Score:2)
More like everything and everywhere (not just Google's)! :(
As a US Citizen, I just have to ask . . . (Score:3)
Oh, okay, it's one of theirs. Boo! Hiss! Hooray for Google keeping us safe from the bad guys!.
Wall Street Journal? (Score:1)
LOL (Score:2, Insightful)
Because thats googles game, and only they are allowed to play it
Re: (Score:1)
benefit society? umm.. no, they're basically a big drag net worse than anything the NSA ever did, they're an orwellian nightmare. where the world population is there product. They have more power over most people than the elected governments in the countries those peoploe live in.
Use DuckDuckGo (Score:4, Interesting)
I have an Android phone and I recently installed the DuckDuckGo app. There is a "global privacy control" option in the settings that will prevent apps from constantly phoning home with data about your location and usage. It reports the tracking attempts too, I was shocked at the number of blocked attempts on apps that I regularly use. So I strongly recommend, it is a beta feature and you may be put on a waiting list but it is worth the trouble.
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I'm surprised that is even allowed. Normally Google/Apple isn't cool with messing with/monitoring the traffic of other apps.
Does it act as a pseudo VPN or something?
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I haven't noticed any difference in battery life, for what that's worth.
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It is a VPN and there's a little key symbol in the upper-right that indicates it is running. You can see a daily per-app report on all the tracking attempts, what info they are trying to share, and what data collection companies they are selling it to. Really pretty amazing how much they are trying to export and to where.
turn it off (Score:2)
I keep location data turned off, unless I REALLY need it, then turn it off again immediately after. On my new Samsung A13 (Android 11), it is right on the top level of "Settings". I also leave all of the "Connections" radios shut off, again unless I really need them. The annoying one is that SMS multimedia no longer propagates through WiFi, but requires mobile data access. That is different from my earlier 4.4 phone.
I will keep an eye out for the DDG app. I wonder, though, about its actual access to to
Comment removed (Score:3)
Data harvesting company delists data... (Score:3)
... harvesting apps pointlessly.
The reality is if you are on the internet and using any web/client server software with a sign or using an android/iphone you long ago gave up any pretense you cared about privacy.
The only way to have privacy is to have local apps that don't communicate to the mothership and the industry has been hell bent on killing local applications and taking us to mainframe dumb client model of computing and turning the PC into a console with the rise of TPM requirement in windows 11 which allows Microsoft and tech companies to remotely brick your software and engage in artifical obsolescence.
They're still hell bent on killing piracy if you think the media and content industries are giving up their desire for monopoly profits and to engage in file extortion you're out of your mind.
They've known since 1997 with the rise of mmo's (aka RPG's with stolen networking code) that the average PC user/gamer is a moron. Like they are going to stop.
When iphone was introduced in roughly 2007, there had already had been a decade of attack on software ownership on the PC so iphone was specifically constructe to remote control of the device from the customer and give it to the company. That is what everyone in the tech industry is moving us towards - dumb consumer devices we don't control and harvest our data.
So the idea that google is "helping" anyone when there business model is built around spying on everyone and harvesting everything is hilarious enough.
The Muslim prayer app galls me. (Score:4, Insightful)
https://arstechnica.com/tech-p... [arstechnica.com]
https://www.thisamericanlife.o... [thisamericanlife.org]
All the crappy forms you have to fill in, but this (Score:2)
Google is broken.
Re: All the crappy forms you have to fill in, but (Score:2)
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FTFY
Blame the user (Score:3)
I'm seeing old applets disappearing from Goolge play. What remains are applets needing network connections to download adverts, to store your history/work in the cloud, to normalize the idea that users don't control their data or their device.
Google Drive and DropBox exist so that applets don't have to access the network themselves. There's few applets that dont' use the network but it's on the user to avoid applets that access Contacts data but don't provide communication, access Phone Identity but don't provide personal service, and to avoid network-dependent applets as much as possible. Google normalizes the need for network-dependent applets and ignorant users enable the popularity of spyware.
Re: Blame the user (Score:2)
The user wants to download Happy Candy Fluffy Bunny, or else the kid will go waaa.
The user does not know why Happy Candy Fluffy Bunny needs access to phone contacts, or the huge list of other things that Happy Candy Fluffy Bunny should not need, but the kid will go waaa so the user downloads the malware and clicks through the big permissions list box without understanding or even reading it.
All I read - (Score:1)
Cannot allow potential competition on data harvesting, best squash it before too long.
Great (Score:2)
Except they do jack shit in actually checking those apps for malware as the recurring stories of mass pwnage with a huge laundry list of bad apps from the Play Store indicates.
Lots of gum flapping but nothing to back it up.