Comment on In North Korea, your phone secretly takes screenshots every 5 minutes for government surveillance
dev_null@lemmy.ml 2 weeks agoYes, Google’s code processes every touch, they wrote Android after all, so you are technically correct.
Is it all being sent somewhere from every Android device? Of course not, that’s ridiculous.
Zacryon@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
angry Snowden noises
taladar@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Storing individual button presses is ridiculous because that is much too low level when the apps also have much more high level information about your activities available. It is literally more useless than data you can acquire just as easily.
Zacryon@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Probably. Although such low level interactions can also contribute. Depending on what someone wants to do or needs.
dev_null@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Yes, I’m sure he’s angry people are diluting the invigilation he exposed by coming up with fake ones all the time
Zacryon@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
I don’t have the time right now to addeess all of this, but:
Device interactions can be used to identify users, predict and manipulate their behaviour, contribute to further identification measures etc…
Furthermore my point was that there are many reasons to be cautious about any type of data collection and processing. Saying a specific type would be ridiculous undermines the possible dangers stemming from this. Therefore I wouldn’t plainly discard these concerns.
Even if, in this context, the transmission is not widely noticed, this doesn’t pose a universal guarantee, especially if this can be turned on on demand via backdoors, trojans or whatever. Even worse if the transmission can be hidden. (Less likely for very proficient users with extremely tight network monitoring & control, but that’s rarely the case.)
dev_null@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
I absolutely agree with you. What I’m arguing against is baseless FUD without any specifics, any sources, any details, and making extraodinary claims without extraordinary evidence. I didn’t mean that the type of tracking is ridiculous, what I’m saying is ridiculous is the claim that Google is collecting the logs of EVERY touch on EVERY Android device. Does that claim even needs to be disproven?
Is that happening on Chinese Android phones without any Google services? Is that happening on AOSP phones without Google services? Is that happening on GrapheneOS, on other custom ROMs? Is that happening on my washing machine that for some reason runs Android? Is that baked into the system? From which Android version? In a particular system app? Where can I see these logs of all touches for myself?
It is patently obvious it cannot be happening on EVERY Android device. And I’d welcome evidence that it’s happening on even a SINGLE one. But I don’t see it. Because it’s made up hyperbole that’s poisoning the discussion of real tracking.