Google Cuts Android Privacy Features, Says Release Was Unintentional

[DamianTV]

http://yro.slashdot.org/submission/...ures-says-release-was-unintentional?sdsrc=rel

"Peter Eckerlsey at the EFF reports that the 'App Ops' privacy feature added to Android in 4.3 has been removed as of 4.4.2. The feature allowed users to easily manage the permission settings for installed apps. Thus, users could enjoy the features of whatever app they linked, while preventing them from, for example, reporting location data. Eckersley writes, 'When asked for comment, Google told us that the feature had only ever been released by accident — that it was experimental, and that it could break some of the apps policed by it. We are suspicious of this explanation, and do not think that it in any way justifies removing the feature rather than improving it.1 The disappearance of App Ops is alarming news for Android users. The fact that they cannot turn off app permissions is a Stygian hole in the Android security model, and a billion people's data is being sucked through. Embarrassingly, it is also one that Apple managed to fix in iOS years ago.'"

Their only intention is Profits by selling your Privacy.

We used to have the Right to Privacy. Then it became a Priviledge. Then a Permission. Now Programs give us permission. This progression of scale continues to edge toward Privacy = Death Sentence. I wonder why.

 

[LibForestPaul]

There should be a hard physical switch that disables GPS chip itself. But somehow, I feel such a device would violate E911 directives.

 

[angelatc]

http://yro.slashdot.org/submission/...ures-says-release-was-unintentional?sdsrc=rel



Their only intention is Profits by selling your Privacy.

We used to have the Right to Privacy.

You keep using that word, but I don't think you know what it means.


You still have a right not to carry a phone. Or the right to carry an Apple phone, which the article claims has fixed the issue.

 

[DamianTV]

You keep using that word, but I don't think you know what it means.


You still have a right not to carry a phone. Or the right to carry an Apple phone, which the article claims has fixed the issue.

Then what does it mean?

 

[Reason]

You have a right to not carry a phone.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

There should be a hard physical switch that disables GPS chip itself. But somehow, I feel such a device would violate E911 directives.

I wonder if you extended a signal antenna outside of a faraday cage it would preserve normal operation while disabling all GPS functions... and then something simple to cover the antenna also... faraday pouch with an external signal antenna that can be covered....

How about take the Otter Box model to a faraday cage extreme, with a slide panel to expose the signal antenna to ambient RF?

 

[GunnyFreedom]

You keep using that word, but I don't think you know what it means.


You still have a right not to carry a phone. Or the right to carry an Apple phone, which the article claims has fixed the issue.

POSIX Darwin is a branch off of OpenBSD. iOS is a Darwin kernel. OpenBSD is the foundation of my NSA-Proof computer platform. I would love to get a gaggle of developers together and develop an Open Darwin Mobile platform for all devices - including iOS devices which can retain the factory kernel.

Controlling access to on-board devices like GPS transceivers etc is what open POSIX was made for. Maybe drag a bit of Enlightenment in and really jazz up the interface.

 

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

Google will sell you out, every chance they get. Believe it. They tell you up front.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Then what does it mean?

The NSA sucking cell data is a privacy rights issue; a private company carrying out the terms of it's contract is not. You can, if you wanted to, agree to be on the next "Big Brother" TV show and be monitored by millions 24x7. What this smells like to me is Google people want to keep their privacy more secure than big.gov and big.com prefers for mundania, and then an insider app leaked.

It may be corporate malfeasance with minor governmental collusion, but unless the App Ops release was crushed by the DHS, which would be a clear violation of privacy rights, if it was all in-house rumbling at Google then it becomes a matter of contract violation upon the terms of service that users agree to.

Privacy rights can, indeed, be violated by an NGO. Stealing your data and giving it to the government (by request or otherwise) is a grant of access not permitted by the Constitution in the 4th Amendment. Stealing your data and broadcasting it publically has the same effect, now the government knows, so privacy rights are in technical violation.

However, stealing your data and broadcasting it publically has some other implicated criminal offenses. Say, someone stole your credit card data and posted it to a hacker board. That's theft and fraud. Even if no charges were ever made, it costs you, the user, to regain your security. New card, time lost, sometimes a fee. An over-zealous DA could go for Privacy Rights Violation arguing that Washington DC could see the users credit card data, but have some sense and go for theft and fraud what they are guilty of.

Technically, you have a right to privacy from your government, and a right to contract with third parties. Where a third party conducts itself in a way that would violate your privacy, it is all but universally accompanied by other actions that already merit legal sanction. Still other third party situations, like grocery store rewards cards, we embrace. No privacy rights violation. Yet if the US (or State) Gov compelled your shopping habits from Food Lion, your privacy rights will have been violated.

 

[nobody's_hero]

There should be a hard physical switch that disables GPS chip itself. But somehow, I feel such a device would violate E911 directives.

People should probably just stop buying shit that spies on you.

 

[Thor]

POSIX Darwin is a branch off of OpenBSD. iOS is a Darwin kernel. OpenBSD is the foundation of my NSA-Proof computer platform. I would love to get a gaggle of developers together and develop an Open Darwin Mobile platform for all devices - including iOS devices which can retain the factory kernel.

Controlling access to on-board devices like GPS transceivers etc is what open POSIX was made for. Maybe drag a bit of Enlightenment in and really jazz up the interface.

I'd buy that.

 

[Matt Collins]

There should be a hard physical switch that disables GPS chip itself. But somehow, I feel such a device would violate E911 directives.

They can triangulate your position based upon the device connecting to multiple towers; no GPS required

 

[angelatc]

Then what does it mean?

The constitution was meant only to restrain government. In this example, assuming that a right to privacy actually exists, it would mean that the government can't use your phone to track you.

It doesn't mean that the corporation you are renting it from doesn't.

Again, you have the right not to carry a phone.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

They can triangulate your position based upon the device connecting to multiple towers; no GPS required

Which is an order of magnitude less effective, almost useless when you are dealing with a signal only being carried by 1 or 2 towers, and can only come as the result of a special effort by the carrier to provide the data. A much larger chain of custody on a product that is less accurate and less reliable to start with. With advantages in war often measured in millimeters, I'll take it.

 

[Contumacious]

The constitution was meant only to restrain government. In this example, assuming that a right to privacy actually exists, it would mean that the government can't use your phone to track you.

It doesn't mean that the corporation you are renting it from doesn't.

Again, you have the right not to carry a phone.

Exactly.

The NSA, not Google, is the one we should be worried about.

.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

This was always a hidden feature. There are ways to still access it.

http://www.xda-developers.com/android/get-back-app-ops-with-just-a-root-enabled-application/

 

[dillo]

I guess we all know why the feds never wanted people to "jailbreak" or "root" their phones

 

[DamianTV]

Theres a new technology on the market emerging called "Trusted Computing", that trusts only the Status Quo and further condemns everyone to be treated like a common criminal.

The release was probably unintintional as we all understand that Google and other Tech Giants support the Illusion of Privacy over Real Privacy. They support the Loopholes to the Constitution by being the Third Party that collects much of the info that Govt gets on people and can get away with collecting all this information on people as the restrictions on Third Parties is much less extensive than those that are just ignored by the Government.

When the Privacy of a Single Man is abused, that man is no longer free. When the Privacy of a Nation is abused, the Nation is no longer Democratic in any way shape or form.

 

[LibForestPaul]

Which is an order of magnitude less effective, almost useless when you are dealing with a signal only being carried by 1 or 2 towers, and can only come as the result of a special effort by the carrier to provide the data. A much larger chain of custody on a product that is less accurate and less reliable to start with. With advantages in war often measured in millimeters, I'll take it.

Indeed. Or, why else mandate such a technology?

 

[LibForestPaul]

Again, you have the right not to carry a phone.

Get back to us when we are able to excercise the right to produce a phone and provide a service that can not be tracked.