Tag: Privacy

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Tuesday Blues: Google I/O 2011, Microsoft Buys Skype, and Senate Hearing On Mobile Privacy.

It’s Tuesday and there are a lot of news coming.

Microsoft confirms Skype acquisition.
Some said that Microsoft were “tricked” into overpaying the acquisition. Om Malik brings up a few good points.

Google I/O 2011
Exciting event for Google Developers and Fans.
(Ed. – The message is: “People in the glasshouse shouldn’t throw the rocks.”)
Coverage by This is ny next.

Senate Hearing on Mobile Privacy
Apple and Google on hot seats regarding location data and privacy.
A Senior VP and a lobbyist testified. Guess which companies they are representing, respectively.
Coverage by This is my next.

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Apple Answers Questions Regarding iPhone Location Data.

Apple answers questions regarding iPhone Location Data through its Press Release page. To summarize Apple’s answers:

  • Apple is not tracking anyone.
  • The iPhone is not logging user’s location.
  • It is the database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around user’s current location. Some are located far away from user’s actual locations.
  • This database is used to triangulate the iPhone location when Locations Services is running.
  • The current database is not encrypted, but protected in a different way. Next software update will encrypt the file.
  • Geo-tagged Wi-Fi hotspot and cell-tower data are sent to Apple in an anonymous and encrypted form.
    “Apple cannot identify the source of this data.”
  • The Location Data cache is stored longer than expected due to software bug.

Apple also mentions:

Software Update
Sometime in the next few weeks Apple will release a free iOS software update that:

  • reduces the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone,
  • ceases backing up this cache, and
  • deletes this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off.

In the next major iOS software release the cache will also be encrypted on the iPhone.

“Next Major iOS Software Release” could mean iOS 5.

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Google Voice Voicemails Appear in Google Search Result.

This week started off with one big news on Google Voice. Apparently people are finding out that random Google Voice voicemails appears in Google search result.

Use Google to query: site:https://www.google.com/voice/fm/*

Previously we noticed that every time we received a new voicemail notice from Google Voice, we could play the message without ever logging in. That was a concern we had.

google-voice-voicemail-notification

The phone numbers are also visible in these “public search result” of Google Voice voicemails. Talk about privacy breach. We believe that Google should close this privacy breach by forcing users to log in to retrieve any contents from Google Voice.

Even though “only” a handful voicemails were leaked, the damage is done. Well, then again, Google voice is still in “beta” (*cough*).

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Note:

Yes, We all at 37prime have Google Voice accounts.