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How do I know that my Android phone doesn't have a backdoor keylogging everything that I type and uploading it to Google/NSA each night? I haven't rooted and i

How do I know that my Android phone doesn't have a backdoor keylogging everything that I type and uploading it to Google/NSA each night? I haven't rooted and installed wireshark on this device, but even if I did it could just not send it whilst that is logging. Or, it could be that wireshark doesn't see everything. Or I just wouldn't notice as there are many packets going back and forth between my phone and Google. I suppose I could install Cyanogen and not install Gapps. But then, how do you know that Cyanogen isn't compromised? Life's too short. Facebook messenger is convenient and most of my friends use it so I go for it. I just assume that all of my communication and more seriously location data for the last few years are logged with the intelligence agencies.

bansheehash 10y ago
"Life's too short to worry about privacy" is precisely the kind of attitude that normalizes increasingly invasive surveillance and inadvertently feeds into the desire of companies to glean as much information as they can from their users' data. Why does the convenience of Facebook messenger have to come at the cost of privacy? I think it's an appropriate response to criticise a company for implementing what can only be generously interpreted as a bug, if not a backdoor, and dismissing concerns when it was pointed out to them, all the while making specious claims about being secure and lulling its users into a false sense of security. Public outrage is a powerful tool in ensuring that companies don't get too adventurous in spying on their users for fear of getting caught and called out on it. At the risk of raising the spectre of authoritarianism, I think the folks who held on to their religious beliefs in countries that enforce/d a particular religion (or no religion), or secretly organised protests against communist regimes would gape in disbelief at the choices of the current generation to use always-on digital assistant devices, communication tools and social media platforms that have been shown to be linked with government surveillance programs. Sure, your government may be democratic and benevolent at present, but what would stop an authoritarian President from using troves of already collected data to purge the country of its "dissidents"? It's not a far-fetched concept - Why do the UK fire and rescue authorities need access to the browsing history of citizens [1]? It will be all too easy for a government with all kinds of data on its citizens to establish a "citizen value" score [2] and optimize access to healthcare and other services based on it. Just the possibility of such a dystopian future should be a cause for concern on our willingness to exchange privacy for convenience. [1] - http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/big-brother-watching-you-every-organisation-allowed-snoop-your-internet-history-revealed-1593830 http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/big-brother-watching-you-every-orga... [2] - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-surveillance-big-data-score-censorship-a7375221.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-surveilla...

bansheehash 10y ago

"Life's too short to worry about privacy" is precisely the kind of attitude that normalizes increasingly invasive surveillance and inadvertently feeds into the desire of companies to glean as much information as they can from their users' data. Why does the convenience of Facebook messenger have to come at the cost of privacy? I think it's an appropriate response to criticise a company for implementing what can only be generously interpreted as a bug, if not a backdoor, and dismissing concerns when it was pointed out to them, all the while making specious claims about being secure and lulling its users into a false sense of security. Public outrage is a powerful tool in ensuring that companies don't get too adventurous in spying on their users for fear of getting caught and called out on it. At the risk of raising the spectre of authoritarianism, I think the folks who held on to their religious beliefs in countries that enforce/d a particular religion (or no religion), or secretly organised protests against communist regimes would gape in disbelief at the choices of the current generation to use always-on digital assistant devices, communication tools and social media platforms that have been shown to be linked with government surveillance programs. Sure, your government may be democratic and benevolent at present, but what would stop an authoritarian President from using troves of already collected data to purge the country of its "dissidents"? It's not a far-fetched concept - Why do the UK fire and rescue authorities need access to the browsing history of citizens [1]? It will be all too easy for a government with all kinds of data on its citizens to establish a "citizen value" score [2] and optimize access to healthcare and other services based on it. Just the possibility of such a dystopian future should be a cause for concern on our willingness to exchange privacy for convenience. [1] - http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/big-brother-watching-you-every-organisation-allowed-snoop-your-internet-history-revealed-1593830 http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/big-brother-watching-you-every-orga... [2] - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-surveillance-big-data-score-censorship-a7375221.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-surveilla...