Is smartphone eavesdropping on users?→ If you experiment, it turns out that you are "voyeurism" instead of eavesdropping.
There is an ear on the wall and the smartphone.
The smartphone's conspiracy theory is hard to disappear, and many people believe that smartphones are eavesdropping on conversations for targeting ads.
VICE has recently stimulated people's beliefs in the article "Your Phone is Listening and It's Not Paranoia".In this article, he said in front of his smartphone, "I returned to college" and "I want a cheap shirt", and I came to see advertisements for shirts and university lectures on Facebook.Based on the 5 -day experiment, it was a conclusion that the reporter issued (for reference, I often see shirts advertisements on Facebook, but the age of advertising for the new semester has passed.)
Computer science scholars who are tired of this superstition have decided to do strict research and work on this problem.
I don't seem to be eavesdropping, but I was voyeuring
Last year, ELLEEN PAN, JINGJING REN, David Choffnes, Christo Wilson, and Martina Rindorfer at Santa Barbara at the University of North Eastern University, Martina Rindorfer at the University of California University, more than 17,000 popular apps on Android, to record their smartphone.Experiment to find out if it is used.The app contains one belonging to Facebook and over 8,000 apps to send information to Facebook.
As a result, there was no evidence that the app started or transmitted the audio without permission, contrary to the prediction of the conspiracy theorist.I couldn't find any examples of eavesdropping.
Instead, they found a disturbing movement different from eavesdropping.The app recorded the smartphone screen and sent the information to a third party.
Examples of voyeuring even partner companies without permission
Researchers gradually began to realize the strange movement that screenshots and video recording in the app were sent to a third -party domain.
For example, when the junk food delivery app GOPUFF was used on a smartphone, the exchange in the app was recorded and sent to Appsee, a mobile analysis company.The video included a screen to enter personal information, in this case, a postal code.
This is not so surprising.This is because Appsee proudly advertises the function of how users are operating in the app on their own sites.
However, the researchers were confused that the recording of the user was not clear for them, as a mobile analysis company, and did not reveal it in Gopuff's privacy policy.After the researchers contacted Gopuff, the company added a phrase that Appsee may receive user personal information in the policy.According to the startup's public relations, "I added a note and deleted Appsee SDK from the latest Android and iOS apps."
The Appsee side claims that Gopuff has something wrong.Appsee's ZAHI BOUSSIBA CEO, "It is clear that our customer needs to announce that our customer is using a third -party technology, and that the Customer is forbidden to track any personal information.I wrote it. "According to BOUSSIBA CEO, customer can paint the confidential information in their apps black to prevent recording by Appsee, and many competitors record the movement in the user's app for both iOS and Android apps.・ I pointed out that it provides replay functions.
"In this case, the Appsee technology has been misused by the customer and our terms have been infringed," said Boussiba CEO."Since we were informed about this problem, we immediately disable the tracking function of the app that was mentioned, and purged all recording data from our servers."
Mobile analysis companies are not completely innocent
However, the PLAY STORE, which is the acquisition of Android apps, and Google, which runs it, the Appsee is not completely innocent."We are always grateful for the efforts of research organizations that help improve the customs of online privacy and security," said the public relations."After scrutinizing the discovery of researchers, we have decided that some of the Appsee services may be at risk of invading Play Policies. Developers use the SDK function.I work closely with the company so that it can be properly conveyed to the end user. "
Google's Play Policy states that the data must be collected to users.
If you don't turn off the screen recording, you can't wipe out anxiety
GOPUFF used Appsee to use Appsee to optimize the performance of the app, so the recording was not unexpected from the company's perspective, but I am worried that third parties can record the smartphone screen without permission.That's what.
This indicates that it is potentially easy for someone who is malicious to steal information from your smartphone.Screenshots or videos for app operation can capture personal messages, personal information, or even the entered password.Many apps show the characters entered before turning into a black asterisk.In other words, the smartphone manufacturer informs you that the screen is recorded, or that you can get into a suspicion as if you are not able to cut the function.
This study is scheduled to be announced at Privacy Enhancing Technology Symposium Conference in Barcelona (while in Spain, researchers have obtained consent to detect illegal broadcasting in bars.You may want to find out about popular soccer apps in the country that accesses smartphone microphones ...).
The possibility of eavesdropping cannot be denied
There were some scenarios that could not be handled in their research, so I couldn't say that smartphones were not secretly eavesdropping.
The smartphone used in the experiment was operated by an automated program, not the hands of the human hand, so the way of moving the app may have been different from the living users.
Also, the verification smartphone was not hanging on the world that started them, but in a controlled environment.In the first few months of the research, I was surrounded by conversational sounds near the students at the North Eastern University lab, but the app was constantly working and the sound was noisy, so I moved it to the closet.It was (if this experiment was performed again, they would play the loop of the podcast next to the smartphone in the closet).
Also, if the app is writing to the text before sending a conversation, the researchers may have missed the conversation recording.So the possibility of eavesdropping is not completely buried yet.
summary
It's no wonder that people become suspicious of smartphones.We almost always wear small devices with countless sensors that can monitor their actions.
The eerie accuracy of the advertisement you see is not literally the result of your smartphone eavesdropping on you.It is a combination of a good targeting based on your digital and real world actions captured via the app, and the fact that you are not as unique as you think.The advertiser knows what you are talking about is because another person similar to you speaks the same thing and buys a similar thing.
"I couldn't find any evidence that people's conversations were secretly recorded," said David Choffnes, one of the authors of the papers.In addition, "People do not seem to understand that there are many other tracking that gives your third party to third parties in everyday life, though not through smartphone cameras or microphones.friend .
Image: Jim Cooke, David ChoffnesSource: Gimletmedia, Vice, CNBC, GoPuff, Appsee (1, 2, 3,), Google Play, Recon (1, 2), PetsymposiumImage: Jim Cooke, David Choffnes (Northeastern University)
Kashmir Hill -Gizmodo US [Original text]