Okay, it’s tin foil hat day… Combined with the bit about the tools available to law enforcement to break into your phone….
PC World is reporting your iPhone or 3G iPad is keeping a log that you can’t see and can’t delete that constantly logs where you have been. There is a program now that can take that log stored on your PC and show you everywhere the phone has been using the backup created by syncing the phone.
So what is the threshold people will tolerate before they will destroy their phones? In the past few days, another story reported that several iPhone apps are “listening” to the room you are in without informing you. Nielson and Arbitron are not hiding they would like to use cell phones to listen for watermarks (like the PPM device) to track what everyone is watching on TV or hearing on the radio in real time.
1984?
Personally, I never sync my iPhone to my PC or any other computer because I dont care if I have a back up or not. and I dont have any app worth more than $ 1 any way.
Ah, but the log still exists on your iPhone!
It is only visible if the phone is “jailbroken” and probably hidden unless you knew the file name. (My phone isn’t broken and I have no plans to jailbreak it)
My guess is the log is there for use by AT&T to deal with all the network problems – so if you use the “The phone doesn’t work here” app, it could send a log of where you use the phone…. but that’s only a guess.
The E.U. is VERY aggressive about protecting privacy, and Apple is going to have a lot of explaining to do.
The WSJ has confirmed (not a huge surprise) that your phone is logging and transmitting your minute by minute location database several times a day to Apple – even if you have location services turned OFF.
I don’t think the average user realizes how intrusive these devices have become.
How many people know Adobe Flash Player is setup to turn on the microphone and camera in your PC/laptop/phone and allow any website to access it BY DEFAULT?
Moreover, to disable or configure these Flash Player settings, you must go online.
That’s right, the Flash settings must be done via Adobe’s website! Here’s the link:
Configure Flash Player settings
The other thing you want to do is delete (on a regular basis) the perpetual FLASH “super-cookies” which share information with other sites. These cookies are different, and much more insidious than the standard ‘Browser’ cookies…
Flash cookies reside deep in the directory structure. On Windows 7 they are here:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\macromedia.com\support\flashplayer\sys
You have been warned.
I tried disabling flash cookies and turned on the InPrivate feature of IE 8 (that detects spy objects and refuses to load them), but it just became too hard to test. I put an HTTP tracer on my PC, and it is staggering how many different domains are being told what I sm doing, not the least of which is Microsoft if I’m using WMP
Anything that is not done strictly with hardware cannot be trusted. Just because a web cam has a LED that comes on when the camera is active doesn’t mean it can’t be turned on without the light coming on. Most people also don’t know that if your computer is plugged in and connected to Ethernet, a remote user (like your ISP – or more likely your IT department at work) can remotely power on your computer inside your locked office. That on/off switch on the front of your computer is only a “suggestion”.
Hmmmmmmm, I have NEVER EVER been to Oprah.com website or several others in the list. What’s that all about??
Flash cookies ignore domain boundaries – probably a flash based Ad for Oprah was showing on some web page you visited. They’re insidious. Adobe has in theory started to limit the abuse of cross domain cookies, but at the web host level, not the user level
Have you ever been to http://johngalt.streamingradioguide.com/startingover/ ?
Anyone know if the iPod Touch does the same thing?
And this isn’t even a new discovery. These articles claim that they’ve been around for a while and that police and forensics experts are already familiar with and are using this data:
https://alexlevinson.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/3-major-issues-with-the-latest-iphone-tracking-discovery/
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383945,00.asp
The ability of any government to listen to what goes on in the privacy of your home has been in effect since the 70s. The system invented in the old Soviet Union and perfected by the Ceaucescu regime in Romania was to plant a chip on every TV set sold and listen to what goes on even when the TV is off. The West became aware of this technology through the defection of Gen. Ian Mikhail Pacepa, the highest intel official to defect to the west. Read Pacepa’s book “Red Horizons” and see how the info obtained by the Ceaucescus was used to control what people said in the “privacy” of their homes. Privacy, my dear friends is non-existent in the USA, it was lost many, many years ago.
I’ve read that it is possible to hear inside a room with a conventional phone when the receiver is on the hook. Is that true?
Any cell phone can be tracked so easily these days. The US Gov maintains listening posts for cell traffic in Colombia, Venezuela, and Bolivia, primarily. This has expanded to El Salvador, Guatemala, and other places throughout the world. This service is manned by Spanish-speaking former Army and Air Force intel officers.
Art:
Yes indeed, Big Brother can listen to any conversation within any cell immediate environment EVEN WHEN THE POWER IS OFF. The only way to prevent that is by removing your battery from the phone. Now do you understand why the iPhone battery is non-removable and totally enclosed?
and… for the land phones there is a small transmitter that fits in the outside phone box (where it states that it could only be opened by a telephone company technician). These used to look like the new 3V batteries, enclosed in plastic with + and – wiring extending out. Now, I am not a conspiracy theorist, but these facts are undeniable.