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Beware your phone

2017-02-14 18:25:04.240001+00 by Dan Lyke 0 comments

RT Caroline O. ‏@RVAwonk:

Those pictures at Mar-a-Lago, showing Trump team using cellphone flashlight cameras to view nat sec info...
Here's some useful context:

The attached image is a quote from CBS News: Beware downloading some apps or risk "being spied on":

Some apps are simply collecting information for advertising purposes. In 2014, the Federal Trade Commission settled a lawsuit with a company over its popular Brightest Flashlight app, alleging it transmitted consumers' personal information to third parties without telling them.

But Miliefsky said he's found another flashlight app that can do much more troubling things.

"This one turns on your microphone in the background, listens in on you, and sends an encrypted tunnel to a server we discovered in Beijing," Miliefsky described.

"You're saying that they're actually listening to people's conversations and sending that audio back to Beijing?" Werner asked.

"Yeah, we've tracked it. I can show you where it does it," he said.

Miliefsky said it can be traced to a few blocks from Tiananmen Square on Information Drive in Beijing.

He gave a report on that app to the FBI.

"Because to me, it's spyware at the nth degree," Miliefsky said.

His recommendation?

"We really have to look at our phone and say, 'This is really a personal computer that fits in our pocket. Let's shut down all the apps we don't use. Let's delete apps that don't make sense and reduce the risk of being spied on,'" Miliefsky said.

[ related topics: Music Photography Current Events Consumerism and advertising Law Enforcement Pop Culture Cryptography ]

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