160 Characters writes about a very nasty mobile application that sounds like it’s a James Bond fantasy, but turns out to be apparently genuine.
It’s an application that gets installed on your phone and automatically and undetectably sends a copy of all inbound and outbound sms to a third party, as well as the facility to list all calls made and received and location information. It’s also not detectable as a virus, so a virus scan won’t get rid of it. And if you do want to make sure that your phone is completely clean merely as a precaution, you have to re-install your mobile’s factory settings, thereby wiping any data that happens to be on there, including your address book.
It can also be installed via Bluetooth, which is really nasty. So next time you’re tempted to download one of those innocent looking marketing messages via Bluetooth, what you might be accepting is one of these things - I’ve pointed out this danger before.
The app costs $129 and the company claims that the software:
can be used to check a wayward spouse’s phone, see if your teenager is dealing drugs or has fallen in with the wrong crowd, …. see if employees are sharing secrets and keep track of members of a sales force…
The makers do helpfully point out that using their application might just be illegal in your country. Which is pretty big of them.
I wrote the other day that the downside of technology is that it brings to life the 24/7 surveillance and sousveillance envisaged in Orwell’s 1984. Make no mistake - this software in the hands of an extremist government will cost people their lives.
What a nice business to be in.
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I recall this app caused a bit of a stir on one of the developers blogs as many thought that it should have been signed without which it would have to alert the users when active. This brought up an interesting debate about the responsibilties of the code signing authorities.
Man wants shared custody of other man’s leg…
Three years ago, John Wood’s leg was amputated after it was injured in a plane crash. He kept the leg and dried it so it could be someday buried with him. Eventually the limb ended up in a barbecue smoker in a storage facility. After Wood stopped payi…
Hoping bill shock might alert victims to the abuse? There must be some cost in replicating all this traffic, via data charges or phantom SMSs?
I’m relieved to see that tech/marketing people like you are spotting the drawbacks und risks of technology, user profiling and the loss of privacy … We (our society) should indeed be very attentive in the near future. strange things are going on - at least in my perspective.
btw: nice new design
Presumably this must be smartphone-OS only; from their web site they imply Nokia Series 60 without stating it (from what I could see). All new devices would need a signed app to achieve this, as Paul notes above, and to install over Bluetooth or any other means the user would have to give explicit permission - so really this can only be installed by stealth if you leave your S60 phone on its own for some time without a PIN set; I’d say you’re more at risk of having it stolen than bugged unless you hang out with the wrong crowd…
There is no reason why a spyware/virus checker could not detect this app, it’s just currently they presumably do not (and most people don’t have them anyway, as really even S60 handsets have near negligible risk without considerable (wilful?) user error).
So mildly disturbing, but only of concern to the small minority of users on S60 who leave their phone regularly unattended in places where phone theft is uncommon…