
Snooping: It's not a crime, it's a feature - asymptotic
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9215853/Snooping_It_s_not_a_crime_it_s_a_feature
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freddealmeida
This was disturbing. I'm fairly sure that there must be tacit agreement for a
party to "snoop" in certain states. Could this lead to law suits?

I'm already creeped out with GPS. Sound analysis is just going too far. Cool
or not, I really don't want to share that much. And even for the most open of
us, can you imagine the information gathered? i.e. seems like you are having
sex. want to know which of your friends is having sex right now too? creepy.

Considering that I work at one of the world's largest independent creative /
marketing firms, I know this will be abused. It always is. We push. You push
back.

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jimrandomh
People recording their own conversations is fine with me, but people being
tricked into sending recordings of their conversations to random untrustworthy
corporations is emphatically not okay. Those may also be _my_ conversations,
which I may not want to be shared.

In my home state of Massachusetts, all parties in a conversation must consent
to recording, which makes this illegal.

~~~
gyardley
The audio data's almost certainly being processed by the application itself
and only a tiny bit of information sent back to the company's servers - both
due to the privacy issues and the implications of having an internet
connection open continuously (battery drain, high data usage bills, etc.)

This wouldn't be the first time fear and partial information damaged adoption
of a promising technology.

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asymptotic
FTA:

"Of course, the use of your microphone with these apps is well understood by
users, because that's the main purpose of the app.

The new apps are often sneakier about it. The vast majority of people who use
the Color app, for example, have no idea that their microphones are being
activated to gather sounds.

Welcome to the future."

With all due respect those users are morons. Color is, rightly, proud of their
"snooping" technology. People who use Color will probably know it records
audio through the microphone.

The proper question is: to what extent may people be permitted to degrade
their privacy? For example, if both parties in a two-way call agreed to have
the call recorded for advertising purposes, and to have ads interjected once
every two minutes into the media stream, in exchange for the call being free,
should that be allowed?

The Libertarian in me says yes. But sometimes people need to be protected from
their own stupidity. Or do they? Hmm.

~~~
Goronmon
_With all due respect those users are morons. Color is, rightly, proud of
their "snooping" technology. People who use Color will probably know it
records audio through the microphone._

I guess that makes me a moron, because I had no clue it was doing this.

It also makes me glad I uninstalled it. Not that it actually worked anyways.

But your arrogance isn't unique I guess. I just hope you know pretending to be
better than others doesn't actually make it true.

~~~
asymptotic
I take my comment back, I apologise. I've just realised that the Apple App
Store does not clearly tell users what permissions a given application
requires.

Go to any application on the Android Market, e.g.

[https://market.android.com/details?id=com.groceryking&fe...](https://market.android.com/details?id=com.groceryking&feature=search_result)

and then click on "Permissions". Before installing anything on an Android you
can immediately and clearly tell what it's going to do. Do I want my shopping
list application to be able to directly make phone calls? I don't think so,
hence I won't install this app.

Does this exist on the Apple App Store? Honest question, I've never used it.

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CodeMage
I don't own an iPhone or an Android (yet), so I was wondering: is there any
way for the user to control permissions the app will have to access the
hardware?

Say, for example, that I like an app because it does several cool things and
only one not-so-cool thing that involves using the mic to "snoop" on me. Would
I be able to download the app and then set up the permissions so it doesn't
have access to the mic?

~~~
asymptotic
I can only speak for Android, but no you cannot deny the application access to
certain aspects of the hardware. You must instead refuse to use the
application as a whole.

On the plus side, Android is very clear about what parts of your phone the
application is requesting access to when you install it.

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nickolai
I cant wait to see that 'feature' on WP7 too. Just imagine good old paperclip
poping up on your phone:

"It looks like you are arguing with your spouse. Would you like me to put you
in relation with a counselor?"

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jakkinabox
With that technology, no wonder Color got so much funding. The list of stuff
that they can find out about you is amazing. That would produce some very
targeted ads.

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naner
It would be nice if there was some kind of hardware or OS-level indicator to
let you know when certain components are active (mic, camera, GPS).

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bxr
Do firmwares like cyanogenmod offer the ability to revoke privileges to
certain apps by just providing them with garbage data? If they don't already,
I think it would be an interesting area to explore.

