“For about $50, you can get a smartphone with a high-definition display, fast data service and, according to security contractors, a secret feature: a backdoor that sends all your text messages to China every 72 hours,” Matt Apuzzo and Michael S. Schmidt report for The New York Times. “Security contractors recently discovered preinstalled software in some Android phones that monitors where users go, whom they talk to and what they write in text messages. The American authorities say it is not clear whether this represents secretive data mining for advertising purposes or a Chinese government effort to collect intelligence.”
“International customers and users of disposable or prepaid phones are the people most affected by the software. But the scope is unclear,” Apuzzo and Schmidt report. “The Chinese company that wrote the software, Shanghai Adups Technology Company, says its code runs on more than 700 million phones, cars and other smart devices.”
“Kryptowire, the security firm that discovered the vulnerability, said the Adups software transmitted the full contents of text messages, contact lists, call logs, location information and other data to a Chinese server. The code comes preinstalled on phones and the surveillance is not disclosed to users, said Tom Karygiannis, a vice president of Kryptowire, which is based in Fairfax, Va. ‘Even if you wanted to, you wouldn’t have known about it,’ he said,” Apuzzo and Schmidt report. “Because Adups has not published a list of affected phones, it is not clear how users can determine whether their phones are vulnerable. ‘People who have some technical skills could,’ Mr. Karygiannis, the Kryptowire vice president, said. ‘But the average consumer? No.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Android is “open.” As in: Bend over and open wide.
Anyone who values their security and privacy would be foolish to use any device that fails to sport the Apple logo [that includes, phones, tablets, smartwatches, Wi-Fi routers, etcetera]. — MacDailyNews, March 22, 2016
SEE ALSO:
Google to pay $5.5 million for sneaking around Apple’s privacy settings to collect user data – August 31, 2016
Cybersecurity researchers: Fitness trackers vulnerable to tracking, privacy breaches – but not Apple Watch – February 2, 2016
EFF files complaint asking for federal investigation; says Google broke privacy pledge, tracked students – December 1, 2015
Tim Cook gets privacy and encryption: We shouldn’t surrender them to Google – June 4, 2015
Apple CEO Tim Cook champions privacy, blasts ‘so-called free services’ – June 3, 2015
How Google aims to delve deeper into users’ lives – May 29, 2015
Apple CEO Cook: Unlike some other companies, Apple won’t invade your right to privacy – March 2, 2015
Edward Snowden’s privacy tips: ‘Get rid of Dropbox,” avoid Facebook and Google – October 13, 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook ups privacy to new level, takes direct swipe at Google – September 18, 2014
U.S. NSA watching, tracking phone users with Google Maps – January 28, 2014
U.S. NSA secretly infiltrated Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say – October 30, 2013
Google has already inserted some U.S. NSA code into Android – July 10, 2013
Court rules NSA doesn’t have to reveal its semi-secret relationship with Google – May 22, 2013
Google Street View cars grabbed locations of cellphones, computers – July 26, 2011
Consumer Watchdog calls for probe of Google’s inappropriate relationship with Obama administration – January 25, 2011
Wired: Google, CIA Invest in ‘future’ of Web monitoring – July 29, 2010
37 states join probe into Google’s questionable Wi-Fi data collection – July 22, 2010
Google Street View Wi-Fi data included passwords and email – June 18, 2010
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “David Boycott” for the heads up.]