Smartphone Apps Quietly Using Phone Microphones And Cameras To Gather Data
from the hush-now dept
With the rise of smartphone apps, users don't always know what features and functionality those apps may be using. Reports are coming out about various apps that use the phone's microphone (and, sometimes, camera) in somewhat surreptitious ways to gather data. Now, of course, there are certain apps that people expect to use the microphone or a camera -- such as music or TV show identification products. But it's a bit of a surprise that apps such as the massively hyped (and then quickly panned) Color (which is a sort of photo sharing/location-based info service) is making use of your microphone and camera without most users realizing it:Color uses your iPhone's or Android phone's microphone to detect when people are in the same room. The data on ambient noise is combined with color and lighting information from the camera to figure out who's inside, who's outside, who's in one room, and who's in another, so the app can auto-generate spontaneous temporary social networks of people who are sharing the same experience.Another app discussed is, Shopkick, which gives people rewards for walking into certain stores. While you might think it could accomplish what it needs with GPS, apparently the stores in question have special devices that emit sounds that you can't hear, the microphone on your phone can pick up, thus "confirming" that you really entered the store.
While the reasoning behind these may be benign, my guess is that most people would feel pretty creeped out about apps turning on either the microphone or camera, without explicitly warning the user and making it clear what's going on (or letting them choose to turn on those features directly). Mike Elgan, who wrote the article linked above, notes (obviously) that surreptitiously turning on your microphone can provide marketers with all sorts of useful data (ya think?), so we should expect it to happen more and more often. Of course, all this is making me think that my Android phone needs an app that warns me whenever the microphone is turned on and lets me block it... Anyone writing that app?
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Filed Under: camera, microphone, smartphones, snooping
Companies: color
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Nothing new here
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Re: Nothing new here
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Re:
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(yeah, I know EULAs don't trump actual laws)
Why does fun or function have to get so creepy?
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To be fair...
For that reason some apps (such as color) need additional information to identify your location. In the case of color (which I'm not associated with and don't use, but have looked into) it basically hashes the ambient noise on a few specific levels to match people together. It's not recording your conversations so all the developers can sit around and listen in.
Let's be honest here, we're talking about apps that openly inform us that they are going to collect our location and use that as part of the app experience. If this was some phone flashlight app that did this that is a whole different story.
I agree it's important to know about these things (and I do like the idea about an alert app, although I'm not sure if you'd be able to identify the application using the resource) this is an area ripe for hyperbole that really just needs some care taken by users as to who you trust.
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Re:
Good advice, but based on experience with my own family I think that page gets about as much attention from the average user as the click-thru EULA.
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Re: To be fair...
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Re:
This is a wiretap lawsuit just waiting to happen.
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What scares me...
I love my Motorola Droid X, but I do worry about what info is being gathered. For example, a Bible app actually requests about every bit of access a phone has. Why does a bible app need any access rights at all? It can't be using that info for just the app, it must be sending it back to the app creator.
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to go a little further about color...
We wrote a quick refresher on what Color is on our marketing website but we are very intriqued and been reading into what Color's progress has been and can potentially become...
Looking through this on a pure marketing/advertising lens will prove that more information = more ways to seed new products/services to a very willing and voluntary mass.
Always a plus in an increasingly segmented, (fractured for others) media consumption'd world.
Christina
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Re:
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Re: Re: To be fair...
You're installing an app that tells you it's going to use the mic. You have to make a judgment call, do I trust this app/company to use that mic access in an appropriate manner.
The app/company has it's reputation to consider. It's non-trivial, but certainly possible to figure out just what an app is doing and what information it's sending. Bad behavior by high visibility apps will come to light.
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Re: What scares me...
You would think God would have a better way of monitoring you than your smartphone.
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Re:
Apps can also create/start 'services' which only run in the background. These are a bit different (and are shown in a separate section in the settings). Services have no UI, but are meant to run long term in the background. They can still be killed, but have different lifecycles.
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Hardwired LEDs
Perhaps that should be done with smartphones too, for both the camera(s) and the microphone(s). Each has a separate led, and when the corresponding input device is turned on, the led turns on. It would not use too much power, since these devices (microphone and camera) are not meant to be on all the time, and at least the camera should use much more power than a small low-power led.
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Re:
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And if your battery life sucks now...
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Re:
As an example, ShopSavvy just required a manual update for me. It requests access to the camera. Obviously, it needs access to read barcodes and such. But who's to say what else it uses the camera for?
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Detecting microphone usage, lighting up an LED
I do not believe that there is a way for an app to be notified that another app is using the microphone, sorry. Blocking it is even more out of the question -- any app that could do that could just as easily permanently block the microphone. The problem is that most "user defense" apps like this would need capabilities that could be exploited by malware, causing problems worse than what we started with.
For the camera, preview mode needs to be active for the camera to work. While there is a fairly arcane way to get around this, the net is that the vast majority of Android camera-using apps will have an on-screen preview of what's coming in the camera lens. This will be more visible than an LED. There is no equivalent for the microphone, though.
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from the horses' mouth...
http://twit.tv/tsh2
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Re: Re:
It obviously has to record the sound, then send it to a server to compare it to a library so it knows *which* location you've just entered. So not only is it recording conversations, it's also transmitting them to a remote server.
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Unbelieveable
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Creepy indeed
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...feeling creeped out
Thankfully, I don't use a smartphone, and I don't use apps. Basic mobile that lets me call someone when I need to.
Trying to keep track of where my computer is sending stuff is bad enough, never mind having to worry about a mobile device.
All of this is making me feel very old, but at least I know enough to stay away from my son-in-law while he's got his iphone on :)
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Re: to go a little further about color...
And those intentions should be stated up front. This noise about reading yards long sections of undigestible legalese is quite crap and a total dodge.
Say what you're doing - what, you're afraid no one will bother with you if you do just that?
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Re:
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FCC been doing this for years
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5184
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029_3-6140191.html
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Re: Re:
All people to sue when they don't like something they were actively told about? At some point the consumer has to take some responsibility. Assuming the app in question isn't misleading in it's function I don't see a major problem here.
The permissions for an app may not be very fine detailed, but they do give a good overview. If they were more detailed people would be complaining that the notice is too long and hard to read.
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Re: Re: What scares me...
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Electronic Collar
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Pet Peeve about Security Warnings...
You are told what the APP wants access to, but the developer isn't forced to provide an explanation of why it needs access to XYZ part of the phone/OS.
It would also be nice to see a 3rd party privacy certification process that actually reviews the source code and provides an executive summary of what data is sent home, etc.
Freedom
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re: Creepy Indeed
I would not be so sure about only giving away tracking information when you dial a number.
They track you every time your mobile connects to a tower for signal, so unless you keep your phone off all the time (and to be safe, wrap it in a Faraday cage.)
http://communications-media.lawyers.com/privacy-law/Cell-Phone-Privacy.html
http://then extweb.com/asia/2011/03/03/beijing-to-track-citizens-with-their-cell-phones
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Re: Creepy indeed
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Wiretapping Laws
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Battery usage
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Re:
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Re: from the horses' mouth...
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Re:
The Shopkick application could process sound locally to identify when you've entered the store. Alternatively, if they are also identifying which store you entered from the sound, that would get sent to a server. A single sample could be used to determine this so I don't believe they are transmitting conversations.
I don't believe Color is recording conversations either. Look to my explanation down further in the comments.
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Re: Re: Creepy indeed
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Re: Detecting microphone usage, lighting up an LED
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Microphone and camera surveillance apps
Don't patent it though, Michael is right, there is too much abuse of the system as it is!
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Re: Re: To be fair...
In fact, the application which gives rewards for visiting stores and validates that the visit actually occurred using more than just simple GPS is incredibly reasonable when you consider that (it sounds like) they are offering tangible rewards for doing this and would leave themselves open to serious exploitation if simply using GPS. If you are using an android phone, you can use the standard operating system to mock a GPS location. It's a feature mostly for developers, but is easy enough for anyone to do.
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http://www.facebook.com/Digital.Camera.Amazon
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Thanks
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Use what you need - dont be too curious
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Political Lobbying App???
If anyone knows of a good one, please let me know. I found one that calls, another just promotes breast cancer. What about one for everyday issues?
Thanks,
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Big Brother is looking at you
, its all so personal.
Every phone so unique.
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Big Brother Indeed
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Scary
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Cover your smartphone camera with Lenspatch!
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Make your own phone case
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Give Big Brother a Hug!
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Re: Nothing new here
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necessary evil
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Apr 18th, 2011 @ 9:59am
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To take it a step farther also by John McAfee's company is a program called the "Dvasive". This app allows you to lock your camera, microphone, bluetooth, and WiFi so that nothing can access it unless you yourself are using it. Very necessary in today's world.
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Apps using microphones, cameras personal pictures, texts mdia Location without MY Consent JUST to use info for looking up info on stores etc. ?????
!
Funny. All the Google users info out there. But I just watched Hillary BS her way through 11 hours ,maybe keep better tabs on those who NEED theMICRO. MANMANAGING. For our safety!!!!!!
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