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You are right. What you say about Facebook is true, but Google's Android is open source, so there is no way they can plant a privacy-invading code and get away

You are right. What you say about Facebook is true, but Google's Android is open source, so there is no way they can plant a privacy-invading code and get away with that.

giovannibajo1 11y ago
No phone on earth runs the open source version of Android that you can download from git. They all run custom versions that include not only closed source personalizations to the system, but they also run lots of closed code as root (play services first and foremost). The reason why this doesn't happen with Android is much more mundane: most Android phones are not encrypted so the FBI doesn't need help to read all the customer data. They just need to open the phone and dump the flash.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
briandear 11y ago
Just because it's open source doesn't mean it's safe. You have no control of what happens to that code before it gets installed on a phone. Samsung, whomever can and do modify the code -- those modifications aren't generally open source. Ruby on Rails is open source but that doesn't mean that all applications on rails are open source.
- rms_returns 11y ago
  > Samsung, whomever can and do modify the code -- those modifications aren't generally open source. That will certainly change quite soon. In the earlier days, FOSS was not a concept that masses were aware of, but now is different. There is increasing competition in the smart-phone world and if one of the other manufacturers (say ASUS) makes their Android modifications open-source, they will see a drastic increase in Sales. To keep up with competition, Samsung, etc. will also have to do the same. In other words, competition will ensure the success of open source.
  - tobylane 11y ago
    >if one of the other manufacturers (say ASUS) makes their Android modifications open-source, they will see a drastic increase in Sales Can you expand on this? I don't think enough people care about source access. RMS's exact hardware choices don't go on to sell millions. edit: I didn't see your username before now.
ionised 11y ago
There are parts of Android phones that are closed and proprietary now. Even CyanogenMod.
- Natanael_L 11y ago
  None that are necessary to run it, still (not including drivers, but that's hardware dependent)
zimpenfish 11y ago
> open source, so there is no way they can plant a privacy-invading code and get away with that Compare and contrast with today's "Typo in PHP's Mersenne Twister" story - https://twitter.com/i0n1c/status/699860681487708160 https://twitter.com/i0n1c/status/699860681487708160 Seems to have been broken since 2007 (the 'broken' line appears in the 2007-01-01 commit "Bump year" but not in the 2006-10-06 commit "Mark rand.c functions with U.")

You are right. What you say about Facebook is true, but Google's Android is open source, so there is no way they can plant a privacy-invading code and get away with that.

giovannibajo1 11y ago

No phone on earth runs the open source version of Android that you can download from git. They all run custom versions that include not only closed source personalizations to the system, but they also run lots of closed code as root (play services first and foremost). The reason why this doesn't happen with Android is much more mundane: most Android phones are not encrypted so the FBI doesn't need help to read all the customer data. They just need to open the phone and dump the flash.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

briandear 11y ago

Just because it's open source doesn't mean it's safe. You have no control of what happens to that code before it gets installed on a phone. Samsung, whomever can and do modify the code -- those modifications aren't generally open source. Ruby on Rails is open source but that doesn't mean that all applications on rails are open source.

rms_returns 11y ago
> Samsung, whomever can and do modify the code -- those modifications aren't generally open source. That will certainly change quite soon. In the earlier days, FOSS was not a concept that masses were aware of, but now is different. There is increasing competition in the smart-phone world and if one of the other manufacturers (say ASUS) makes their Android modifications open-source, they will see a drastic increase in Sales. To keep up with competition, Samsung, etc. will also have to do the same. In other words, competition will ensure the success of open source.
- tobylane 11y ago
  >if one of the other manufacturers (say ASUS) makes their Android modifications open-source, they will see a drastic increase in Sales Can you expand on this? I don't think enough people care about source access. RMS's exact hardware choices don't go on to sell millions. edit: I didn't see your username before now.

ionised 11y ago

There are parts of Android phones that are closed and proprietary now. Even CyanogenMod.

Natanael_L 11y ago
None that are necessary to run it, still (not including drivers, but that's hardware dependent)

zimpenfish 11y ago

> open source, so there is no way they can plant a privacy-invading code and get away with that Compare and contrast with today's "Typo in PHP's Mersenne Twister" story - https://twitter.com/i0n1c/status/699860681487708160 https://twitter.com/i0n1c/status/699860681487708160 Seems to have been broken since 2007 (the 'broken' line appears in the 2007-01-01 commit "Bump year" but not in the 2006-10-06 commit "Mark rand.c functions with U.")