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A correction | 355 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
A correction
Authored by: knarf on Friday, April 05 2013 @ 05:35 PM EDT
The mere fact that you do not use vendor-supplied (where 'vendor' stands for any
entity which could be corrupted by 'the man') utility programs on your mobile
device does not make you immune. Whatever software you run on a vendor-supplied
device is subject to whatever nefarious code runs on that device. If, say, our
favourite fruit company put some code inside their iOS which enables 'the man'
to intercept data on your device, no amount of encryption is going to help -
unless the decryption happens inside your brain of course. The same goes for
Android - but here at least you have access to the source. If you are so
inclined (as I am) you can build your OS image yourself. It would take quite a
bit of time (and that is an understatement) to look for bad bits in the boatload
of code which makes up Android and all related build tools but it can be done -
viz. OpenBSD.

Of course there still is that big binary blob of radio-related code which just
sits there, doing whatever it wants so if I were 'the man' I'd set the nasty bit
on that code instead of the OS image. Poof, there goes your privacy...

To be *really* safe from prying eyes when using mobile devices you'll just have
to refrain from using mobile devices. The question whether this level of
paranoia is justified I'll gladly leave to you. I'll just continue using my
home-spun Android phone.

---
[ "Omnis enim res, quae dando non deficit, dum habetur
et non datur, nondum habetur, quomodo habenda est." ]

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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