Warning For Android Users And Coming Solutions

You know, I'm the only person I know who couldn't care less about tracking me, and my shopping habits.

It's been really good so far to see it in action

Eg. I searched recently for a one tea pot. It's like a teapot that sits on its cup, for one person.

I couldn't find what I wanted (specific pattern) and gave up. When I went on a shopping site to review my wok, there, in the sidebar, was the patterned one teapot I was looking for. They tracked my search and gave me their hints for what I may like to look for. I have my teapot to pick up this afternoon.

As for tracking me... I forget to turn on my location when I'm going out and my phone is actually 'secretly' doing it anyway. If anything happens to me, my BF and police will find me.

See, I look at it totally differently than just everyone I know. I couldn't care less. If anything I welcome it all.

But I like ID cards too ;)

Those who give up liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety. Ben Franklin

I agree, Duane. What I do or look at is no-one's business but my own unless I choose to tell them. Somewhere along the line, the Orwellian model took over, although ironically not led by the State so much as the bloody corporations intent on emptying my wallet!

android always knows where you are, they use it in their map traffic, and its great. you can track where your phone is if it's lost. it will be worse if everyone has an android car though. you'll always drive past all the sponsors. there have been reports that some adware on phones will listen to your conversation and list ad's on sites. talking about a vacation? now you'll be spammed about it. that's a bit more disturbing. though nothing new. at one point there was an IRC that when people spoke on it, they were getting spammed later on about what they were talking about.

just be sure that if you have an android, and google plus, that you turn off tracking, or it will report straight to your page when your moving around. it becomes a 4 square, and if you don't use google plus that often or at all, you may not know its broadcasting you.

and if you have google histories on, more tracking. and if you have amazon tracking on, it will track you from site to site and recommend things that you saw on those other sites.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Not sure how it's "connected", but i use Bing for my searches, and last week I was comparing prices for a specific lens the B&H and Amazon sites. Sometimes afterwards, when I logged on to my email, there in the right hand margin of my email page were ads from B&H for that particular lens.

If "they" (whoever "they" are) need to track my 8 yr old Razr phone to locate me, so be it. I get vehicle reports on my truck (via Sync) sent to my email, but have to have my phone on in the truck to accomplish the check. Once again, "they" may have to find me someday if I'm disabled or worse. If I'm not doing anything beyond reproach, why worry about it.

I'm also with Abbie, as I like having ID's. :)



"...ironically not led by the State so much as the bloody corporations intent on emptying my wallet! "

Richard, those large "corporations" are the ones donating/lobbying to the minions in poltical office within the State. ;)

Well we are all gonna be chipped soon. :-)

I don't think they'll waste their time or chips on us older ones, David. :)

"Those who give up liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety. Ben Franklin"

Bonfire, i agree with the statement but i will have to ponder a while to see if it's applicable.

If it's a computer and it's network connected, it hard's to know if data isn't leaking off of it... News stories abound on this stuff.

i wonder when they will use these phones to place you at the scene of the crime or to be used as an alibi. since it knows exactly where and when you are and what you may have been doing. ... such as using android or google brand knives to kill that person...


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

i remember the huff years ago when intel wanted to brand each chip with a number that could track you. and people were screaming at them, and this was a time when notebooks weren't quite out. now with phones tracking everything, listening in, etc - no one seems to have an issue at all with it.

even google glass, where it not only tracks you but watches everything you look at. it knows who you were dealing with, knows what stores you went to, etc.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Same thing...I spoke about this here...put a photo on FB of my new teapot and a friend knew about it already..... Saves me explaining things twice. And yes, I'm willing to give up a little liberty for safety. I'm glad you can all turn it off but I'm not. That's all I'm saying.

"...i wonder when they will use these phones to place you at the scene of the crime or to be used as an alibi...."


They already are, Mike. Tune in to a majority of the tv shows (NCIS, Criminal Intent, etc), as that scenario has been included in some of the plots of the police/crime shows. Once they know the location, they just need to prove you were there with the phone on your person at that time.

If one is that paranoid about smart phones,
Don't get one , or leave it at home or keep it in a lead box......

on tv maybe yes, but i wonder if in real life they use it. because anyone can take your phone.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

IF location tracking is on even whether we switch it off, then thats a violation of our civil liberties, basically if for some remote reason, soemone wanted to terminate you, all they need to do is monitor where you are. Thats scarey. Off should mean off. Evetually people will rebell against this intrusion if they are not given full easy to implement and reliable options. Id like unpluggable mics and video cams on laptops and tablets too. Yes they are hackable. YOu can bee listenned in to, watched. Our complete lives are up for grabs. You could have your entire lifes work stolen off your laptop, your intellectual property, digital art, books, ideas, poems, your life, everything. And once/if this starts happening, it will make our/your work worthless. I encrypt, but does that have backdoors? if so, then eventually trust will evaporate further into nothing, there will be no trust and thats dangerous. for everyone. especially for the companies. People will turn against them. The tide will build.

there are watch bots for people on facebook. even if they don't stupidly announce they will be leaving on a 12 day trip, then post the best break in points for their house. the bot will watch the IP the posts are being sent from and checks to see where you are. then they can rob the house.

and 4 square tells people exactly where you are. besides showing people your habits, anyone can gun you down or mug you. i don't know why anyone would use that service.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

"Those who give up liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety. Ben Franklin"

AMEN. It starts small and is done in tiny increments that no one finds intrusive until it's too late.

Ah Ben Franklin and the others spent the "war years" in hiding most of the time.
They gave up liberties and safety. Franklin had massive land holdings. He just
wanted more control over his property for his family.....24 kids many of whom were
born to unwed mothers.

I brought this up more out of concern for battery life in Android products than for security reasons.

Seriously folks.

Dave

"...Smartphone Apps That Secretly Connect to User Tracking and Ad Sites"


David, I don't see anything in the title stating the use of battery life.

unusual you are David lol

👻

Greg,

No mention of battery life, but that is the technical problem here.

Jason if they want to terminate anyone they can. But who is they? LOL

Dave

Maybe edit the title of the thread to read: "Will This Technology Drain Battery Life?", or something to that effect. Just a suggestion, David.

you can always turn off the gps follow function. but the battery life last a long time even when its running for the whole day. usually it will only turn on at a wifi hotspot... though it may be different with a sim card in there.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

It was past my bedtime. I went off to bed.

I slept well.

My batteries are recharged.

So many subsystems running on the Android at one time are problematic.
I dont believe the iPhones are completely away from this sort of problems
either.

Dave

If you watch anything on the ID channel you'll see the many ways the authorities use phone tracking to figure out where you and/or your phone are. Tracking missing persons, using call records to establish timelines, mapping towers that your phone is pinging off of to verify alibis, etc. Phones are probably the best instrument police use in recent times to help them solve crimes and track both criminals and regular people.

Mike,

In all honesty I dont have a smart phone...for dumb people. I have a dumb phone for smart people.
My dumb phone is $25/month.

I have sat in a diner for years with people running out of battery life. Subsystems play a role in that.

Battery tech is getting better. I read about asynchronous lithium ion batteries on MIT's website. And other
battery techs not for cell phones making major advances. So maybe this issue has lessened.

Dave

Just how mamy of you carry your smart phones around with you?

Everyone I know carries their phone around with them. I never leave home without mine.

so your calling everyone that has a smart phone dumb?

but then ragging on the battery, funny.


i've run my gps all day long without an issue. it depends on the battery. OEM - last all day and then some. end of the day, full day of roaming around, wifi off most of the time, no actual phone connection, i get 6-8 hours with 40% remaining. cheap battery, only 20% or less remaining.

i bought the phone unlocked, i wouldn't rent one.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

right now the phone is my source of entertainment, my connection to the net, wifi permitting. and my map tracker.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Do the smartphone liberate you to do more of what you want to do?

sure. i place my phone on my computer. tell it to create a dozen artworks, and it does so, while i do more interesting things....

ideally i had to go to a smart phone because they don't make PDA's any more. these are much more advanced than any PDA. on trips i can look up stuff on the net, check the mail and mostly log my route, so i can see where i am, and see where i was on a trip. overlay that on a google map and i can ID buildings and such. and of course... games. i got this phone mostly to stave off boredom, hurricane sandy left us without power for like 2 weeks. and we didn't have anything to do. i got this and other things to help cure the boredom.



---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

So do smart phones give one freedom of one kind and take away freedom of another?

I'm a music nut and listening to music on my phone while out is very calming to me (but I do have headphones that allow ambient noise to come in so I can hear the killer behind me if he is) I have pretty severe anxiety problems and putting the headphones on and listening kinda blocks out the madness of the big city in which I live (San Francisco), which I do find very anxiety-provoking. My phone is my 'security blanket'. I'm often out alone and have some difficulties walking so I always have my phone to call for help (I've fallen and can't get up!) if my back/legs decide to fail me. In fact, my back injury was caused by falling 4 times...twice while I was out on the city sidewalks.

Having a phone with you for calls frees you up from having to stay home and wait for a call on a land line. As Mike said...it's great entertainment too...I have the Internet, my music, calling/receiving calls, and games/apps on my phone, so one is never bored. The tracking, to me, would be the only feature of having a cellphone that might detract from it, or take away someone's 'freedom'. I don't mind it at all. Again, if I get kidnapped (doubtful...but you never know!), I'd like the authorities to be able to track where the killer has taken me and my phone. As far as tracking websites I've visited for shopping or research, I have nothing to hide, I'm the only one using my devices, so again, doesn't bother me.

the bad things about phones:

distracting
car accidents
people lose the ability of pole avoidance
people are sidetracked more often. it's better to update your friends about the current seconds of your life, rather than talk to the friend in front of you.
all kinds of carpal problems and eye strain.

they take away all your freedom really. you don't have to really think any more. no more of those trying to remember a song moments... you can sing it to your phone and soundhound will find the song and sell it to you. find the song on google and it sells it to you. take a snap of a painting or photo and do a reverse search from the sidewalk. if you have a sim card and your hooked to the web, you can use it as google glass and identify all the stores your looking at... despite being a sign on them. you can see the stores behind the stores blocks away with it. if you have google glass, stairs become bumpy slides as you fall down them while checking your mail.

you have a tendency to touch more things because your always touching the glass. watching my 4 year old niece swipe the back of my camera waiting for it move. and being frustrated that it didn't do anything, started pushing buttons instead. you take it more for granted.

also if your gps is on, and your talking selfies and posting them - the world knows where you live, hang out etc. that's how kids are kidnapped these days - selfies with GPS info in the exif.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

"...I'd like the authorities to be able to track where the killer has taken me and my phone...."


Absolutely, Joy, but in the shows (probably in real life also, Mike ;) ), the bad guys usually toss the victim's phone so they can't be followed.




Speaking of battery life, my going-on 8 year old MotoRazr flip phone is still using the original battery. It lasts a long time, but i don't have all that "smart" stuff on it. Roughly $34 a month after the carrier and the government tack on their fees.

That was me, Greg. Yes, on the shows I see the killers (and I use that term just as a generic) taking the phone away, smashing it to bits on the highway, etc. Most killers seem to be cunning b*stards, but some are stupid as well, thankfully. It just gives me extra security when I'm out and about. I don't think it would be my demise, as possibly carrying a weapon would.

David thanks for the battery clarification. I was going to reply about the fact that we give up our privacy the moment we use a credit card or sign up for a store loyalty card. All that long before smart phones ever hit the market.

Regarding battery life, the biggest things that suck battery life are Android itself, WiFi, and Data. Turn off yoru WiFi and Data except for when you need them. You'll triple the time between needed charges. The other thing to do is not to use apps that have to run the background. Of course all this sort of defeats some of why we use smart phones, but I've found somewhat of a balance only charge about every other day.

Joy, I fixed that typo and added your name. I meant to but got side-tracked while typing before.


"...cunning b*stards, but some are stupid as well..."

Absolutely concur.

I like watching the old Star Trek series when the computer is asked to play back an event in time and it produce a perfect clip of the event.
I wonder if that's where we are headed.

google glass can record everything you see. i can see this implanted at some point so you will always have access to everything you saw and see it photographically. and like that movie that also showed what happened in life, your kids can see what you were like growing up from your own point of view. i can also see some kind of external selfie cam, it would have to hover, and look something like that little light saber practice ball thing. and it would record you from all angles, so when you die we can have a holo version of you,

all of these can be downloaded to the net or taken by police for different reasons. i suppose then there would be a new drug like selling of information. things seen implanted in your own head. or a more fun life could be sold to boring people so they can experience what its like to be someone else. and eventually that will lead to a new psychosis where you don't even know your own identity any more... and all of that because of phones in this century.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

What was the name of that movie with Will Smith that was about what Mike discribes?

there was I robot... men in black...

but there was another one that had that memory chip thing, i only remember that one part. and a number of cyberpunk dystopia's that it would fit in.

also was it total recall that has arnold in it, where he was on mars with new memories?


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Mike, it was Enemy of the state. ..1998...
i remember that it was a good flick

i don't think i saw that one. i'm not much of a movie goer, and when i go, it's usually sci-fi.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com