News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Secret app on millions of phones logs key taps by CamperBob on Wednesday November 30, 2011 @11:58PM (#3298428)
Do you have a dog in this particular fight?
Re:Secret app on millions of phones logs key taps by tptacek on Thursday December 01, 2011 @12:41AM (#3298543)
Yes. HN is becoming stupider by the day, and I like HN.
Re:Secret app on millions of phones logs key taps by someone13 on Thursday December 01, 2011 @01:54AM (#3298702)
Well, in the interest of keeping the signal/noise ratio high, here's my view on things.

When someone uses a mobile phone, they generally have the assumption that, unless they consent to it, third parties do not have access to their data (the government being a different story I won't go into). When I use GMail, I consent to Google reading my email via automated algorithms, and targeting ads at me through that. If I have anything important, I use email that I host myself or, if it's really top-secret, an anonymous throwaway account through Tor.

However, from what this video demonstrates, CarrierIQ is violating the basic principle of this by capturing and potentially logging your personal data without your knowledge or consent. Furthermore, it's violating the assumption that most people have that their passwords and such are not captured by applications other than the ones that they are entered into.

Now, we don't know for sure whether all this information is sent off to their servers and logged or not. However, in my personal opinion, the fact that this information is CAPTURED AT ALL is a serious problem, when combined with the fact that you are not informed of this!