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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsForget the NSA: Your Tech Gadgets Are Spying on You
You know your phone is smart, but just how smart is it? Smart enough to sense your every movement. Smart enough to capture your every word.
Smartphones possess an arsenal of powerful features including microphones, GPS receivers, accelerometers and Wi-Fi antennas that are meant to help users communicate and access information, but those very same tools can also be used for spying.
John Harrison, a representative with security software company Symantec, said mobile devices are increasingly playing host to the kinds of malware once found only on PCs, such as remote-access Trojans (RATs). RATs turn devices into Bond-esque spy tools, stealing passwords, recording video and audio, and launching attacks on other systems.
And smartphones are also vulnerable to other kinds of hacks. In 2010, researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey performed a series of rootkit attacks on smartphones, demonstrating how to remotely activate a device's microphone to secretly record conversations.
The researchers were also able to install malware that allowed them to track a user's movements using the phone's GPS receiver.
more:
http://news.yahoo.com/forget-nsa-tech-gadgets-spying-170109659.html
TPTB all want us to start using those neat little new gadgets that do cool & amazing things for a pittance or less:
Facebook? Twitter? Apple? Google? The NSA got nothing on them.
Andy823
(11,495 posts)I also heard that if you buy a smart TV it's that way also, they can spy on you with the camera that's built in. I wonder how many people who have these devices know this and how many on Twitter, Facebook, etc. are going to stop using the service, or get rid of their smart devices?
Dr Hobbitstein
(6,568 posts)But some really high end ones do. A Smart TV is nothing more than a computer and TV in one unit. You can always hook up a camera to it, but you don't have to. Most laptops, however, DO have a built in camera. Nothing that a small piece of electrical tape can't take care of.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)It's a good bet the information is only used for good by our deserving corporate overlords, if the definition of good is getting the drop on one's political enemies, business competitors and romantic rivals.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)to a secret US torture chamber ...to never be seen again. Stop the bull shit!
baldguy
(36,649 posts)Or have you swallowed that "Don't Be Evil" shit?
The only people standing in their way is the government.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)baldguy
(36,649 posts)Or did you the those were just for the use of the US govt?
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)Even then it's OFF 90% of the time.
My laptop has a webcam, which I disabled.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)that's nice... at least you think you are safe.
And no I am not kidding.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)The phone has a removable battery, The laptop has Windows on the hard drive that's never been used-I use a highly modified Linux boot flash drive.
Any truly sensitive information is kept inside my skull.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)that is all.
I wish I were kidding.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)The most dangerous day of your life is your last one because that is the day you found something you couldn't beat.
I've been pretty good at keeping secrets for most of my life
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)even for the challenge...
But if you want to think otherwise, be my guest.
And by the way, this is the actual danger on this. The real overreach.
but guess what... your last post, has been logged, at least the meta data... so will the next and so on and so forth,
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)Way back I've had several gorounds with more than one three letter organization-not all of them U.S.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)anymore.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)just blame the corps for following court orders...
This place never ceases to amaze me.