
Android Spyware Can Record Almost Anything on Infected Devices - hackwarenews
https://hackwarenews.com/powerful-android-spyware-can-record-almost-anything-on-infected-devices/
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dopamean
The phones we carry around freak me out a lot when I think about what they can
do. In many ways they really are a worst case scenario when it comes to
privacy. I once heard someone use the term "Little Brother" to describe our
smartphones and their respective corporate owners.

So yeah, this malware can record almost anything. That's sort of a feature of
these devices. They're built to record almost anything.

edit: I fixed a typo

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prolikewh0a
Why is there no open source alternative to Android or iOS?

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Grazester
Android is open source?? You can compile it however you want and dont even
have to use Google services.

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Avamander
By that logic so is ChromeOS. Point being, Android without _any_ closed-
source/google components is rather useless.

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Grazester
Android is perfectly usable without the Google services. It may not be as
polished and of course apps that depend on Google services may not play nice
with the drop in replacement but its not like your smart phone suddenly
becomes a dumb phone.

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foepys
While that's true, you are losing one of the most critical components of
Android. Not the Play Store but Firebase Cloud Messaging. It's not part of
AOSP and so deeply integrated into Android that removing it cripples a lot of
apps. Replicating FCM's functionality inside apps leads to a _significant_
increase in battery drain.

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amaccuish
Take a look at microg. I use it, it supports FCM. Ok so I'm still using Google
to some extent, but the amount of information they get out me is vastly
reduced and similar to Apple.

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srcmap
On Windows, I can use ProcessExploror + TotalVirus to check every single
running app's exe, dll Signatures against 60+ virus scanner's databases.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnPtuTbqzd4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnPtuTbqzd4)

It is not perfect but give me a lot of comfort about all the running app, .dll
files in my system. It helped me easily detect my kid's game machines of some
internet drive by download issues before and work very well to remove those
apps/files.

I really wish Google can create something similar for Android. Love to see
something similar for iOS, OSX also.

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wpietri
Is it odd to others that after decades of Windows security nightmares we seem
to have basically replicated the issue on an entirely new platform?

I get that it's a fundamentally hard problem. But I can't shake this feeling
that we maybe missed an opportunity to do better with the fresh start that
mobile OSes represent.

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magnetic
The scary thing about this is that, while you may have a good "security
hygiene" around your devices, you have no control over others who you
socialize with.

It's a bit like ending on Facebook even though you have no account: someone
posted a picture of you, you got tagged, and now you exist in FB.

All it takes is one person with an infected phone to show up around a table of
a private event/conversation and, through no fault of your own, you get
recorded.

The moral of the story (that I've been trying to follow for a few years now,
quite unsuccessfully I must add), is that if you want a private conversation
with someone (or a group of people), you need to keep all devices away.

On the bright side, it has taught me to be very diplomatic in my discussions
with others. My default behavior (when I don't slip) is to assume that
whatever I say could become public somehow.

