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Posts Tagged ‘Apple’

Big Google is watching you

January 16, 2013 Comments off

businessspectator.com

While travelling overseas at Christmas we naturally turned off mobile data on our phones to avoid being ripped off by the phone companies’ rapacious data roaming charges.

Instead, everywhere I went I asked for the Wi-Fi password and sometimes didn’t even need one. No problem, although using Google maps to get around in the street was impossible.

 

In fact with all three phone networks in Australia whacking up their data prices, I’m thinking of turning off mobile data at home as well. There’s more and more public Wi-Fi around and although the domestic Read more…

Hacker group claims access to 12M Apple device IDs

September 4, 2012 Comments off

computerworld

Computerworld – Hacker group AntiSec has published what it claims is about 1 million unique device identifier numbers (UDIDs) for Apple devices that it said it accessed earlier this year from a computer belonging to an FBI agent.

The group, which is a splinter operation of the Anonymous hacking collective, claims that it has culled more than 12 million UDIDs and personal data linking the devices to users from the FBI computer. AntiSec said it chose to publish a portion of those records to prove it has them.

In an unusually lengthy note on Pastebin, a member of AntiSec said the group had culled some personal data such as full names and cell numbers from the published data. Instead, the group said it published enough information such as device type, device ID and Apple Push Notification Service tokens to let users determine whether their devices are on the list. Apple device owners who want to Read more…

Categories: hacking Tags: , ,

New Microchip Knows Your Location To Within Centimeters

April 11, 2012 Comments off

Forget a chip in your forehead – the ‘mark of the beast’ is the cell phone

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The development of a new microchip for cell phones that knows the user’s location to within a few centimeters confirms the fact that contrary to biblical fears about mandatory implantable microchips, people have willingly exchanged their privacy for convenience and that the cell phone itself is the de facto “mark of the beast”.

“Broadcom has just rolled out a chip for smart phones that promises to indicate location ultra-precisely, possibly within a few centimeters, vertically and horizontally, indoors and out,” reports MIT Technology Review.

“In theory, the new chip can even determine what floor of a building you’re on, thanks to its ability to integrate information from the atmospheric pressure sensor on many models of Android phones. The company calls abilities like this “ubiquitous navigation,” and the idea is that it will enable a new kind of e-commerce predicated on the fact that shopkeepers will know the moment you walk by their front door, or when you are looking at a particular product, and can offer you coupons at that instant.”

Over 82% of Americans own cell phones, with around half of these being smart phones. In the near future, the majority of Americans will own smart phones that will have the ability to track their location down to a few centimeters.

With the effort to legally establish surveillance drones as a legitimate tool in domestic law enforcement, authorities could save a lot of time and money by simply requesting cell phone companies provide real-time tracking of suspects via their smart phones.

Indeed, Apple, Google and Microsoft have all been caught secretly tracking the physical locations of their users and Read more…

IPHONE users may soon be stopped from filming at concerts — as a result of new Apple technology.

June 17, 2011 Comments off

thesun

Click to enlarge

The leading computer company plans to build a system that will sense when people are trying to video live events — and turn off their cameras.

A patent application filed by Apple revealed how the technology would work.

If an iPhone were held up and used to film during a concert infra-red sensors would detect it.

These sensors would then contact the iPhone and automatically disable its camera function.

People would still be able to send text messages and make calls.

The new technology is seen as an attempt to protect the interests of event organisers and broadcasters who have exclusive rights to concerts.

The companies are often left frustrated when videos of shows appear online via websites such as YouTube which let users watch them for free.

Apple filed for the patent 18 months ago — and it is thought if successful it will help them negotiate deals with record labels to sell content through iTunes.

Categories: Technology Tags: , ,

6 Biggest Tech Security Fails in the Last Year

May 17, 2011 Comments off

ismashphone

Fail

This is the age of being perpetually connected. If you have a Twitter, Facebook or any other sort of account, your information is out there. The best thing to do is just keep the information you don’t want people to know offline. It’s just safer that way.

Now, let’s take a look at the times that the major companies have failed, big time. There are several of them, here they are.

1) Texas Workforce Commission – Identities Released: Social Security Numbers, Addresses, etc.

My home state (note: everyone on iSmashPhone is from a different part of the world). It was recently found that Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and other personal info, according to website ComputerWorld. Two security chiefs were fired over it, and while the Attorney General’s office says that there is no evidence that the exposed data has been misused, they did say that we should be careful about being targets of a new phone scam. Here is that press release. And everyone is worried about Apple? This was personal info for people who truly had no choice in the Read more…

Google CEO: Phone tracking to enrich lives

May 17, 2011 Comments off

rt.com

Image from trassa-e99.livejournal.com

Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt came out to defend tracking technology in smartphones arguing the technology will ultimately enrich and benefit the lives of consumers.

Recent debates regarding privacy have surfaced following the discovery of tracking files native to Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android mobile operating system.

Today, you’re phone knows who you are, where you are, where you’re going, to some degree, because it can see your path. And with that and with your permission, it’s possible for software and software developers to predict where you’re going to go, to suggest people you should meet, to suggest activities and so forth,” he said. “So ultimately what happens is the mobile phone does what it does best, which is remember everything and make suggestions.”

Allowing your phone to know you, follow you and help you will allow users to enjoy their social experience more, he contended. The experience of will become increasingly Read more…

iPhone iPhone keeps record of everywhere you go

April 21, 2011 Comments off

guardian

Apple’s iPhone saves every detail of your movements to a file on the device. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Security researchers have discovered that Apple‘s iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner’s computer when the two are synchronised.

The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone’s recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner’s movements using a simple program.

For some phones, there could be almost a year’s worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple’s iOS 4 update to the phone’s operating system, released in June 2010.

“Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or Read more…