

Time to come Clean Motorola (2012) - pppppo
https://forums.motorola.com/posts/e24b3bfc6d

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xxpor
Wow. Here are some highlights (these are from Mark, the moderator/Moto
employee:

>I take privacy quite seriously. You notice that we use HTTPS on the site
because we feel your privacy is important.

>Lastly, I'm saddened by the fact that you didn't abide by the Motorola
Feedback Network Non Disclosure agreement you agreed to upon joining the
Motorola Feedback Network. Discussing MFN activities outside designated areas
is strictly prohibited. Provided this thread excludes MFN related activities
here on out it will remain open. Further violation of the NDA will result in
closure of this thread. If you(cythrawl) would like to discuss MFN activities
further please email me at supportforums@motorola.com.

What! You revealed that we spy on you? That's under NDA!

~~~
ww520
Hmm, where did I hear similar argument before? Ah, Snowden breaking his
employment contract!

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jezclaremurugan
I found this statement there...

    
    
        "IT IS YOUR PRIVATE INFORMATION... Look at the permissions, they could read pretty much EVERYTHING you do with the phone and track WHERE you was when you did it, and WHO you did it with.. There is NO REASON why its in there, none at all. And last I checked Motorola Corporation was NOT a Government entity, and if it WAS a Government trying to do this very thing the outrage would be extensive (unless you lived in a Country like North Korea)."

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bcoates
The business with the reset count tracking isn't necessarily as creepy as the
shovelware/adware apks in the default image, or the serious information leak
in activesync in the other Motorola thread.

I'm guessing the firmware update downloader sends some sort of hardware
identifier, plus a firmware flash counter, to the update server. This would be
the obvious way to prevent re-updating a device that reset itself or was
manually reset after a firmware update hosed the system, which would trap the
user in a loop. A (device id,firmware revision,reset count) table somewhere in
the motosphere isn't exactly PRISM.

Outside a tiny number of hardcore custom ROM tweakers, 21 resets almost
certainly indicates some sort of problem.

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
Mark explained it.

> _Upon turning on the phone and registering it on the network you must agree
> to the EULA. The only difference between your phone and a MOTOBLUR device is
> that you don 't have a user created login. A random login is created for you
> to optimize the setup experience. If you don't connect any social networking
> applications your phone doesn't connect with our servers._

It involves a hardware ID, and a profile that is created when the device is
initially synced. It may also send a "firmware flash counter" but it wouldn't
be necessary.

~~~
bcoates
But the OP said he was using cyanogenmod before, is he claiming that the
hardware phones home even when he's not using the motorola firmware?

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
I don't think so. I think his claim was that the hardware phones home under
the Motorola firmware, and that the EULA hadn't spelled that out clearly, and
that Motorola had not been as forthright as they should or that they may even
have been deceptive.

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peter_l_downs
The scariest part of this thread is the responses from the user 'Poko' a
little bit further down. Go ahead an read them — I'm still not sure if that's
an astroturf account or not.

~~~
eightyone
Do you have a screenshot? Looks like it has been deleted.

Edit: Oops. Never mind, you meant a user on Motorola's website. Please
disregard this comment everyone.

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ajays
Now that Motorola is owned by Google, I wonder what Google has to say about
this?

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lostlogin
"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't
be doing it in the first place," Schmidt.
[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/07/schmidt_on_privacy/](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/07/schmidt_on_privacy/)

~~~
moondowner
Every time I read that claim I feel like sharing this article: "Why Privacy
Matters Even if You Have ‘Nothing to Hide’"
[https://chronicle.com/article/Why-Privacy-Matters-Even-
if/12...](https://chronicle.com/article/Why-Privacy-Matters-Even-if/127461/)

~~~
lostlogin
Thanks. Just for the record, don't be thinking I agree with that statement. I
consider it among the creepier quotes Schmidt has produced, and he has a great
selection to choose from.

[http://www.stateofsearch.com/top-15-of-eric-schmidts-
remarka...](http://www.stateofsearch.com/top-15-of-eric-schmidts-remarkable-
quotes/)

~~~
josephlord
Hmmm scary and it doesn't even get the best one:

"Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it," he
said. Google implants, he added, probably crosses that line.[1]

[1]
[http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/10/google...](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/10/googles-
ceo-the-laws-are-written-by-lobbyists/63908/)

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nereus
The wider internet community needs to know about this.

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primo44
I didn't even know that they were dirty.

*Time to come clean, Motorola

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mathattack
Wow!

