Android spyware
Mentioned it a bit back. But here’s more detail on it. Also, this is not a Google thing. It’s carrier specific. You can see if your phone is running the offending app by using this app. Mine is all clean, and I use Verizon.
Dammit, this makes me want to root my phone again.
December 9th, 2011 at 10:42 am
Just loaded it onto my Sprint Evo HTC, yep, I got’s it! But hey, I don’t use the phone to Buy/Sell or Pay Bills on Anything, so they can F.O. And if anyone wants to track my movements to the Bathroom….
Of course, I also know how to use the OFF Button, and I can also pull the Battery Pack if I want to be sneaky, so the hell with them.
December 9th, 2011 at 11:25 am
The stuff is in iPhone iOS too although to what degree it was used is not clear. Apple’s usually opaque communications.
December 9th, 2011 at 12:12 pm
Do you have a link to or version of that app for iPhone? No? Well, I guess I’ll go on about my day then 🙂
December 9th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
I’m guessing the appstore hasn’t approved it yet.
December 9th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
This is yet another reason I’ve been running CyanogenMod on my phone pretty much since I got it. Stock was 1.6, I could wait several months for an update (like my wife did), or I could upgrade to 2.1 immediately. They finally pushed out the official update, but occasionally my wife’s phone suicides and can only be fixed by flashing back to factory firmware and then letting it update again–the Tmobile store can’t fix it, the only way it even got done was I backed up my firmware when I first rooted.
December 9th, 2011 at 1:06 pm
Verizon Droid X here, and the app says I don’t have it. Wonder who decides what phone gets it?
December 9th, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Huh. Interesting…and troubling.
December 9th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
My Verizon Droid X2 is clean also…
December 9th, 2011 at 6:33 pm
No windows phone has it and never has
Just saying
December 10th, 2011 at 2:16 am
Unc, I truly adore your unabashed, albeit unbalanced hate for Apple. Just this morning I was reminded of you when a customer walked into my store (it’s a store with a big glowing apple above the entrance) and proceeded to harangue me about what a scam the iPhone is. “$199 for an iPhone and it’ll cost me $350 to cancel the contract?!? SCAM!”
“Of course, sir. Except for that part where your carrier is subsidizing your purchase to the tune of $450 or more with the idea of recouping that cost over the two years of your contract. BTW, how’s that Android working for you? The one that fits in none of your pockets, requires two hands to operate, opens you up to all kinds of malware, whose unique flavor of OS might well be unsupported in a matter of months, and cost you… $199 to buy?”
A variant of this conversation occurs at least once a week, often prompted by employees of the three big carriers (who, incidentally, receive higher commissions on Droid sales than they do on iPhone sales). As a former IT guy who cut his teeth in the Unix world and made a LOT of money supporting .gov Windows systems I gotta wonder… why the enraged hard-on for Apple? Droids are great phones. So are iPhones. Can’t we just agree that it’s fucking awesome to be able to carry computers in the palm(s) of our hands that are more powerful than those carried into space by the Apollo astronauts?
December 10th, 2011 at 4:13 am
Why do people hate apple so much?
Same reason they hate UNIX forms who think that they can actually manage a windows infrastructure because “they cut their teeth on UNIX”
Apple geeks think they are elite because they have the new iTrash and anything that isn’t apple is crap… want proof?
“The one that fits in none of your pockets, requires two hands to operate, opens you up to all kinds of malware, whose unique flavor of OS might well be unsupported in a matter of months, and cost you… $199 to buy?”
Thanks for playing……. sent from wp7
December 10th, 2011 at 10:27 am
My understanding is that CarrierIQ is so far into the phone’s programming that even rooting is incapable of removing it. That may have changed, as we learn more about the program.
My Verizon Incredible 1 did not have the software on it.
December 10th, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Never seen an android not fit in a pocket, not able to be used one-handed and this is the only instance of malware I know of and it’s affected both android and iphone.
December 10th, 2011 at 8:44 pm
Govhater,
Seriously, you seriously believe there is anything difficult about architecting and supporting a Windows server infrastructure for someone that has ever been a fully qualified *nix admin? Bwahahahahahahaha, I supported *nix and other proprietary operating systems long before there was a Windows OS, much less Windows server OS. Started supporting Windows desktop at the ‘286 level and have supported every level of Windows server and desktop since. No comparison between the complexity, supportability and control of the two. There is a reason a 6 week bootcamp class was able to gin out Windows admins during the dot.com era.
Back on topic though, if I’m not mistaken the last time I set up an iPhone one of the questions asked was if it was okay to send data back to Apple for analysis and support. No was an option and it can be turned off after the set up. Recent analysis seems to indicate that most of these “privacy busting” applications don’t send anything back but metics and no actual content that the user creates. I’m a privacy freak that would happily php encrypt all my email if I could get away with it and this doesn’t even raise an eyebrow for me.
Sheesh, how about joining the camp of, “ain’t it great all the cool toys we get in the modern age?”
December 10th, 2011 at 10:00 pm
Uh, I think I have a Cricket, but it’s a dumb little bastard. Can’t even whistle.
December 11th, 2011 at 12:01 am
Hi govhater!
I dig the selective quotes. You missed the part where I said “Droids are great phones. So are iPhones.” My pseudo-rant about the Droid was a little poetic exercise along the lines of “I can play the role of tech misanthrope, too”. Because see… if you’d been wearing your reading comprehension cap you’d have realized that I think that Droids are great phones, as well as iPhones. But whatever. Your game sucks and you’re a fucking retard, so who cares?
And Unc, I’ve yet to see a Droid phone in which the thumb of one hand can easily reach all the real estate on the screen. It’s a small thing (hey! a pun!) but I dig the fact that I can scope out the entirety of my iPhone’s screen with a single digit. Personal proclivities, etc., ad nauseum. Use what moves you, right?
Again, what about this age of technological marvel-ization prompts this incessant pissing contest? We’re communicating via Windows/Apple/*nix/mobile devices with friggin’ light beams and space waves and shit! Isn’t that cool enough to put aside your parochialism, stand back, and just think “This is awesome!”?
December 11th, 2011 at 12:22 pm
Wait, did someone just try to convince me that the iPhone’s smaller, inferior screen is actually an advantage?
But you are correct, they’re both fine phones/systems.
But my OS can beat up your OS 😀
December 11th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Scott,
I have a Motorola Atrix; it is the approximately the same size and shape as an iPhone and fits into any of my pockets.
December 12th, 2011 at 5:54 am
Rooted my LG Revolution as soon as I got it, the amount of bloatware they put on these things is ridiculous.