Another Court Says Police Don't Violate The Law In Putting A GPS Device On Your Car

from the tracking-you-in-public? dept

We first discussed this issue way back in 2003, wondering whether it was really a violation of privacy for police to put a GPS tracking device on a suspect's car. In 2005, a court said it was perfectly legal, though there were concerns about what this meant. We're seeing the same concerns as another court has ruled the same way. The reasoning and the logic is effectively the same: if you are traveling on public roads, anyone could (theoretically) drive behind you and see where you are going -- even without a warrant. So is it really a violation of privacy if that tracking is done by a little black box attached to your car instead of a big black box with four wheels?

Of course, the flipside to that, is that if you are driving you can also see (for the most part) if there is another car following you and that other car cannot follow you onto private property that you own. A hidden GPS device is quite different on those points. So while the courts seem to be coming down on the side of this not being a violation of privacy, I can definitely see where privacy advocates are troubled by these rulings. The fact that they effectively suggest the police can simply put a hidden GPS device on any car for no reason at all raises plenty of questions -- especially in an era when information can and is regularly abused.

Filed Under: gps, police, privacy, surveillance

Canadian Judge Says No To Cameras In The Courtroom... But Okays Twitter

from the connecting-to-the-outside-world dept

It seems like a popular topic in 2009 is how modern technology is opening up public access to courtrooms... if only judges would allow it. We've had numerous stories about things like Twitter and webcasting from a courtroom. To date, most stories are about judges banning as much as possible, but Michael Geist points out that in a case up in Canada a judge has barred television cameras, but allowed Twitter. Of course, since the specifics of the ruling do allow mobile devices to gather and disseminate news... what about someone using the camera on their mobile phone to stream the proceedings? That's not the same as a full sized TV camera that the judge rejected...

Filed Under: cameras, canada, courtroom, twitter
Companies: twitter

Random Facts: Why SMS Is Only 160 Characters

from the that's-a-bit-refreshing dept

The LA Times has tracked down the reasoning for why SMS text messaging is limited to 160 characters. Basically, one guy working on the project figured that was plenty after typing a bunch of sentences out and noticing that most were less than 160 characters. There was no serious additional research done on it. It just sorta stuck once implemented. In an age where so many things are user-tested to death, it's kind of nice to know this was almost an accident of history, based on the reasoning of one guy.

Filed Under: 160 characters, sms, text messaging

Customer Discovers T-Mobile's 'Unlimited' SMS Plan Not So Unlimited Thanks To $26,000 Bill

from the well-that-clears-that-up dept

It's getting rather ridiculous to keep seeing companies offer "unlimited" services, only to later find out that they're not unlimited at all. Yakko Warner points out that this just happened to one guy in Pennsylvania, who along with a friend, tried to beat the world record for most text messages in a month (182,000) by messaging each other back and forth. They figured they were fine, because they each had unlimited text messaging plans, but after one of them sent 140,000 messages, he received a bill for $26,000 and learned that, for T-Mobile, "unlimited" actually means 100,000, and those additional 40,000 messages cost quite a pretty penny. To T-Mobile's credit, the company has agreed to let the charge slide, but it makes you wonder why it has that cap in the first place if it's advertising the service as unlimited (and then ignoring the cap when people pass it). Why not actually remove the limit?

Filed Under: sms, unlimited
Companies: t-mobile

T-Mobile's Embedded SIM Cards: Great For Connected Devices, Bad For Consumers?

from the what's-the-real-motivation? dept

T-Mobile got a lot of press last week when it announced a new, tiny embedded SIM card to be used in connected devices like "smart" electrical meters. The new SIM is much smaller than the traditional stamp-sized cards, and the company says it can withstand exposure to the elements, making it ideal for machine-to-machine communications with outdoor devices, or in connected consumer electronic devices. However, The Register has a slightly different take on the new SIM, wondering if it's really driven by a desire to do away with removable SIM cards -- meaning T-Mobile could sell devices that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to use on other operators. As the site notes, the electronics on SIM cards are actually minuscule, but they're packaged in a bigger plastic housing to make them easier for people to handle. Theoretically, T-Mobile could use the new, smaller SIM in devices instead of today's standard SIMs, and encourage manufacturers to build them in such a way so that the tiny SIM was essentially impossible to remove. This might not make a lot of sense for handsets, but for other connected electronic devices, it could prove very attractive to operators, particularly if they're subsidizing those devices. It should be noted that this is purely speculation at this point, but given mobile operators' undying love of trying to lock in their customers, it wouldn't be too surprising to see it happen.

Filed Under: devices, sim cards
Companies: t-mobile

How To Fool Apple's Arbitrary App Censors: Make Your App Look Cute

from the it's-all-about-appearances dept

Chris Wilcox, from Alkali Media, sends in (without a link, forcing us to go searching...) his story about his company created a somewhat crude iPhone app called (appropriately) "Crudebox." The app is nothing special -- just a sound box of semi-crude noises, not unlike some other apps out there. They were a bit surprised when the app was rejected for "objectionable" material. So, they reskinned the interface, to make it look a lot nicer, called it Prudebox and resubmitted it. The actual app (and all the sounds) were identical. And... of course, in Apple's arbitrary wisdom, they approved the new app and added it to the iPhone App Store. So, apparently the lesson for those of you who have had Apple's arbitrary app censors reject your app: just reskin it to make it look less threatening.

Filed Under: app store, censors, crudebox, iphone, prudebox
Companies: alkali media

After Five Years, Apparently The Mobile Virus Flood Is Really Coming This Time

from the we've-been-waiting dept

For about five years, there's been an effort to whip up hype around the supposed threat of mobile viruses and malware. Pretty much all of that hype's come from anti-virus vendors, so it's been pretty suspect, particularly as this threat they've been hyping for so long has failed to materialize. It's true that there have been quite a few pieces of mobile malware, but they've failed to spread for a number of reasons. The biggest factor is fragmentation: different vendors use different operating systems on their phones, rendering all sorts of software, including malware, incompatible from one handset to the next. Mobile operators also play a part, since it's relatively easy for them to filter out malware traveling across their networks via SMS. In short, the mobile environment is vastly different from the PC world when it comes to security, so it's unreasonable to think that malware will operate in the same way in both.

Some academic researchers are now saying that the only thing holding back a tidal wave of mobile malware is that no single operating system has sufficient market share, but once one hits 10 percent, phones running it are dead meat. But that argument doesn't wash, nor do the researchers' claims that an MMS-based virus could infect an entire population of devices in a matter of hours. First, the market share figure doesn't make a lot of sense, given that platforms like Nokia's Series 40 already feature in hundreds of millions of devices, creating a large target population. Second, MMS messages still have to travel through operators' servers, so they're much easier to scan for malware than PC-based communications. As long as operators' malware filters are working as they should, it won't be too difficult to stop the spread of an MMS virus. But perhaps the biggest factor holding back mobile malware is that there really isn't any money in it for virus authors. Botnets of mobile phones aren't much use for sending out spam, and generally, the money trail created by any sort of premium-message scam can be relatively easily tracked. The closed nature of mobile networks and mobile devices makes them much less susceptible to malware than internet-connected PCs, and no amount of hype will change that.

Filed Under: mobile viruses

If Criminals Are Smart Enough To Hack Old Nokia's, Can't They Keep A Secret?

from the thankfully-criminals-are-dumb dept

If you have an old Nokia 1100 phone, maybe it's time to dust it off and try selling it in Germany where hackers claim to have figured out a way to use certain Nokia phones to steal authentication codes for bank transactions. There are a few reports that these old phones (if they were made in a very specific factory, not just any old model...) are selling for ridiculous amounts -- ranging from $700 to $30,000 -- presumably because the handsets are so hard to find and are valuable to hackers prone to crime. So far, Nokia says it can't imagine any way for these old phones to be hacked for banking fraud. But not surprisingly, security vendors are quick to point out the plausibility of this type of phone hacking -- since security firms can obviously benefit from unfounded fears that encourage consumers to buy security software regardless of the actual need for it. Is it really that hard to ask a security vendor what the likelihood would be for a criminal to actually succeed in such a scam? Hopefully, the odds of actually stealing any money with these ancient phones are approaching zero -- especially now that the tools to implement the fraud are known and apparently getting quite expensive. Perhaps the real suckers in this story are the gullible hackers who are buying old phones in shady forums for prices that are well more than the phones are worth?

Filed Under: hacking, phones, security
Companies: nokia

BT Blocking Pirate Bay; Claims It's Part Of A Voluntary Self-Regulation Code

from the say-what-now? dept

Slashdot points us to the news that BT is blocking its mobile broadband subscribers from accessing The Pirate Bay, claiming that it's a self-regulation effort in order to remain in "compliance with a new UK voluntary code." It appears to have something to do with the already controversial self-censorship program being managed by the Internet Watch Foundation, which has already blocked access to parts of Wikipedia and the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. At what point do people realize that any such demand to "block" certain types of content will overblock and harm perfectly legitimate sites and technologies?

Filed Under: broadband, filters, mobile broadband, self-regulation, uk
Companies: bt, the pirate bay

Google Routing Around The iPhone App Store?

from the sneaky-and-smart dept

With all of the iPhone App Store press love these days, it's almost easy to forget that Apple refused to allow any outside apps on the phone when it first launched -- instead, telling developers that anything they wanted to do can and should be done via a browser, creating mini-apps that were all web-technology-based. Of course, now that the App Store gets so much attention, plenty of folks have forgotten about designing web-based apps for the iPhone... but not everyone. Google has designed a new version of Gmail that routes around Apple's command-and-control App Store process by going direct via the web. While the article linked here seems to make this out to be a big deal, it seems like the only really big deal is the fact that everyone forgot this was the way Apple originally planned for apps to be handled on the phone.

Filed Under: app store, email, gmail, iphone