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Google Pixel mail-in repairs have allegedly twice resulted in leaked pics

31 points by arkadiyt 5y ago

vecinu 5y ago
Serious question brought up in the article but say my Pixel phone died and I can't turn it on at all, how do I delete all my local data on it without being able to flash it or connect it to my PC?
- foepys 5y ago
  That's why I don't buy phones without an SD card slot and put everything on an SD card. If only everybody were doing this... I hate all those upselling tactics where they want you to pay for more storage.
- ddingus 5y ago
  You probably don't. I had that happen. In my case it was the charging chip. I took it apart, installed charged battery and got the data, then wiped it. Had that not worked, I would have just kept the phone.
kadoban 5y ago
How was the phone accessed? Don't Pixels enforce passwords and an encrypted drive?
dredmorbius 5y ago
Is there any indication that the unauthorised access occurred at the repair facility, or was the package diverted and accessed elsewhere, perhaps by the package delivery service? The levels of trust and potentials for betrayal are high here. It's also worth considering that an old-school camera, in which storage media (film) and the device itself (the camera) were entirely separate posed a different privacy and surveillance threat profile. On the one hand, one could provide a camera to a repair facility with no fear of information disclosure. On the other, film-processing labs themselves could view the images taken, and there are at the very least anecdotal stories of both voyeurism and identification of crimes and abuse which occurred as a result. With digital devices, there's a potential insulation against the latter case (usually for single-purpose devices, e.g., a dedicated digital camera without any networking capabilities --- a smartphone is a security risk regardless of use), but if you're submitting a device with integrated storage for service, your privacy is at risk.
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  The package diverted? So you think that, instead of the simple story of the tech who already had the phone accessing the images, someone managed to figure out which package was theirs and then also somehow divert it? Do you understand how many layers of complexity that adds? That makes it super unlikely, to the point of absurdity seen in the movies.
throwaway81523 5y ago
All built-in storage in the phone should be erased as part of the intake process, the minute the phone arrives at the repair center and they take it out of the box. If microsd cards didn't suck so much, I'd prefer phones to have no built-in storage at all. The Raspberry Pi is nice that way. You have to insert a card in order to use it. Phones could be the same way. Then the phone's RMA instructions would tell you to remove the card before sending the phone in for repairs.
tempnow987 5y ago
Note for apple, you can queue up a wipe remotely if you can't power on your device (or it is stolen). https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/erase-a-device-mmfc0ef36f/icloud https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/erase-a-device-mmfc0e... Highly recommend doing this if you need to send something in for repair that won't boot. One thing, as I understand it Apple encrypts the whole drive, so wiping things may just be clearing the key from device which is pretty efficient and resistant to most hardware attacks (ie, if repair guy pulls drive and connects directly). SD drive deletes - sometimes leave a surprising amount of info behind.
- rasz 5y ago
  How is that going to help when tech repairs unconnected device on his bench?
  - tempnow987 5y ago
    There is no easy way to get data out of an unconnected apple device on the bench unless it is totally unlocked. If it was totally unlocked then anyone who has the phone can get anything from it. To do the kind of account resets being described here the device has to be online for 2FA - as soon as it gets online it gets wiped. In addition, it can't be used as a recovery device for the account (even if fully unlocked). After booting up from a shutdown, iphones require a pin unlock (before even enabling face id). If the device is fully unlocked, then yes, there is a chance tech could access on device content, but that is no different then anyones access if you left the phone somewhere, so bad, but not as bad as these stories (full account invasion).
rasz 5y ago
Lets not forget elephant in the room 'Apple paid millions after iPhone repair techs posted a customer’s nude photos to Facebook' https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/7/22522560/apple-repair-multimillion-iphone-nude-photos-privacy-settlement-pegatron https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/7/22522560/apple-repair-mult... 'college student known as Jane Doe, who sent her iPhone to a major Apple repair contractor called Pegatron Technology Service. While the phone was being repaired at Pegatron’s California facility, two technicians uploaded sexually explicit photos and a video from her phone to her Facebook account. Court documents say the files were uploaded in a way that suggested Doe had posted them herself' 'Apple pushed successfully for its name to be removed from the filings, and it’s referred to only as a “customer” in the complaint.' 'The repair services were performed by Pegatron's subsidiary, PTSI, pursuant to a Repairs Services Agreement ("RSA") between Customer, Pegatron and PTSI. ' Cour filling suggest "Jane Doe, who sent her iPhone to a major Apple repair contractor called Pegatron" is misleading. Jane Doe didnt pick Pegatron out of the blue, she send her broken phone where Apple support told her to. Later in the article another Geek Squad case is mentioned https://www.nbcnews.com/technolog/customer-sues-best-buy-alleges-geek-squad-worker-stole-published-6c10929636 https://www.nbcnews.com/technolog/customer-sues-best-buy-all... This is not the case of Google bad. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Facebook all lobby against Right to Repair legislation, often using scare tactics accusing independent providers of This Exact scenario.

31 points by arkadiyt 5y ago

Serious question brought up in the article but say my Pixel phone died and I can't turn it on at all, how do I delete all my local data on it without being able to flash it or connect it to my PC?

foepys 5y ago
That's why I don't buy phones without an SD card slot and put everything on an SD card. If only everybody were doing this... I hate all those upselling tactics where they want you to pay for more storage.
ddingus 5y ago
You probably don't. I had that happen. In my case it was the charging chip. I took it apart, installed charged battery and got the data, then wiped it. Had that not worked, I would have just kept the phone.

kadoban 5y ago

How was the phone accessed? Don't Pixels enforce passwords and an encrypted drive?

dredmorbius 5y ago

Is there any indication that the unauthorised access occurred at the repair facility, or was the package diverted and accessed elsewhere, perhaps by the package delivery service? The levels of trust and potentials for betrayal are high here. It's also worth considering that an old-school camera, in which storage media (film) and the device itself (the camera) were entirely separate posed a different privacy and surveillance threat profile. On the one hand, one could provide a camera to a repair facility with no fear of information disclosure. On the other, film-processing labs themselves could view the images taken, and there are at the very least anecdotal stories of both voyeurism and identification of crimes and abuse which occurred as a result. With digital devices, there's a potential insulation against the latter case (usually for single-purpose devices, e.g., a dedicated digital camera without any networking capabilities --- a smartphone is a security risk regardless of use), but if you're submitting a device with integrated storage for service, your privacy is at risk.

netizen-936824 5y ago
The package diverted? So you think that, instead of the simple story of the tech who already had the phone accessing the images, someone managed to figure out which package was theirs and then also somehow divert it? Do you understand how many layers of complexity that adds? That makes it super unlikely, to the point of absurdity seen in the movies.

throwaway81523 5y ago

All built-in storage in the phone should be erased as part of the intake process, the minute the phone arrives at the repair center and they take it out of the box. If microsd cards didn't suck so much, I'd prefer phones to have no built-in storage at all. The Raspberry Pi is nice that way. You have to insert a card in order to use it. Phones could be the same way. Then the phone's RMA instructions would tell you to remove the card before sending the phone in for repairs.

tempnow987 5y ago

Note for apple, you can queue up a wipe remotely if you can't power on your device (or it is stolen). https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/erase-a-device-mmfc0ef36f/icloud https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/erase-a-device-mmfc0e... Highly recommend doing this if you need to send something in for repair that won't boot. One thing, as I understand it Apple encrypts the whole drive, so wiping things may just be clearing the key from device which is pretty efficient and resistant to most hardware attacks (ie, if repair guy pulls drive and connects directly). SD drive deletes - sometimes leave a surprising amount of info behind.

rasz 5y ago
How is that going to help when tech repairs unconnected device on his bench?
- tempnow987 5y ago
  There is no easy way to get data out of an unconnected apple device on the bench unless it is totally unlocked. If it was totally unlocked then anyone who has the phone can get anything from it. To do the kind of account resets being described here the device has to be online for 2FA - as soon as it gets online it gets wiped. In addition, it can't be used as a recovery device for the account (even if fully unlocked). After booting up from a shutdown, iphones require a pin unlock (before even enabling face id). If the device is fully unlocked, then yes, there is a chance tech could access on device content, but that is no different then anyones access if you left the phone somewhere, so bad, but not as bad as these stories (full account invasion).

rasz 5y ago

Lets not forget elephant in the room 'Apple paid millions after iPhone repair techs posted a customer’s nude photos to Facebook' https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/7/22522560/apple-repair-multimillion-iphone-nude-photos-privacy-settlement-pegatron https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/7/22522560/apple-repair-mult... 'college student known as Jane Doe, who sent her iPhone to a major Apple repair contractor called Pegatron Technology Service. While the phone was being repaired at Pegatron’s California facility, two technicians uploaded sexually explicit photos and a video from her phone to her Facebook account. Court documents say the files were uploaded in a way that suggested Doe had posted them herself' 'Apple pushed successfully for its name to be removed from the filings, and it’s referred to only as a “customer” in the complaint.' 'The repair services were performed by Pegatron's subsidiary, PTSI, pursuant to a Repairs Services Agreement ("RSA") between Customer, Pegatron and PTSI. ' Cour filling suggest "Jane Doe, who sent her iPhone to a major Apple repair contractor called Pegatron" is misleading. Jane Doe didnt pick Pegatron out of the blue, she send her broken phone where Apple support told her to. Later in the article another Geek Squad case is mentioned https://www.nbcnews.com/technolog/customer-sues-best-buy-alleges-geek-squad-worker-stole-published-6c10929636 https://www.nbcnews.com/technolog/customer-sues-best-buy-all... This is not the case of Google bad. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Facebook all lobby against Right to Repair legislation, often using scare tactics accusing independent providers of This Exact scenario.