Tag iOS

Edward Snowden Supports Apple’s Public Stance On Privacy

by Josh Constine (@joshconstine)

Edward Snowden says we should support Apple’s newly emphasized commitment to privacy rather than a business model driven by personal data collection, whether or not Tim Cook is being genuine. Snowden spoke over video conference during the Challenge.rs conference in Barcelona today.

I asked Snowden his thoughts on Cook’s recent acceptance speech for an Electronic Privacy Information Center award, saying:

“CEO Tim Cook recently took a stand on privacy and Apple’s business, saying “some of the most prominent and successful companies have built their businesses by lulling their customers into complacency about their personal information. They’re gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetize it. We think that’s wrong. And it’s not the kind of company that Apple wants to be.”

Do you think Cook’s perspective genuine and honest, and how do you think it will play out long-term with regards to it hurting or helping Apple’s business, or whether Apple will keep this promise to privacy?”

Snowden responded:

“I think in the current situation, it doesn’t matter if he’s being honest or dishonest. What really matters is that he’s obviously got a commercial incentive to differentiate himself from competitors like Google. But if he does that, if he directs Apple’s business model to be different, to say “we’re not in the business of collecting and selling information. We’re in the business of creating and selling devices that are superior”, then that’s a good thing for privacy. That’s a good thing for customers.

And if that position comes to be reversed in the future, I think that should be a much bigger hammer that comes against Apple because then that’s a betrayal of trust, that’s a betrayal of a promise to its customers. But I would like to think that based on the leadership that Tim Cook has shown on this position so far, he’s spoken very passionately about private issues, that we’re going to see that continue and he’ll keep those promises.

It’s reasonable to wonder how much of Cook’s chest-beating on privacy is philosophy and how much is marketing. Since the iCloud celebrity photo hack last year, we’ve written about how Apple needs to be more transparent about security and privacy. Snowden seems to agree it could benefit the company as well as society.

Apple’s steps in that direction through press releases and public appearances by Cook have been positively received. They resonate especially well with the public in contrast to other tech giants like Google and Facebook that are aggressively collecting private personal data, and the widespread security breaches of big brands.

Yet while people frequently say privacy is important to them, their unwillingness to stray from products that rely on mining their data seems to suggest otherwise. We’re just at the start of the age of personalized computing, and those that embrace it may get an advantage in the market.

Apple is experimenting with ways to personalize with privacy in mind. Its new Proactive update to Siri scans your email to remind you about events, but only does this on your device rather than copying your data to its servers for processing. To keep up while remaining true to its ideals, Apple will need more creative solutions like this to deliver convenience without being creepy.

Note: The announcements start from 50:25 onwards.

And here’s a nice article from Quartz that sums up the key Google announcements:

Everything Google just announced at its I/O developer conference

Brace yourself.(Alice Truong/Quartz)

As anticipated, Google made a flurry of announcements during the two-and-a-half-hour keynote at its I/O developer conference. The company debuted the new capabilities of its next Android release, along with a photo-sharing app with unlimited storage; updates to its lo-fi virtual-reality headset made of cardboard; and much, much more.

Here’s a rundown of what was announced today:

Android M: Google didn’t reveal what the M actually stands for, but the next major release of Google’s mobile operating system will be packed with new goodies (many of which are broken out below). A feature called Chrome Custom Tab will let developers use Google’s browser within their apps, so they don’t have to build their own from scratch. M also will include more nuanced app permissions, with apps prompting users to grant or deny permissions when a feature launches, rather than at installation. (Users would be able to easily modify permissions after the fact as well.)

M’s hardware changes: Though some smartphone manufactures, such as Samsung, have already added fingerprint readers to their devices, Google is officially adding support for this in Android M. In addition, it will support USB type-C, the next-generation standard for charging and file transfer. When users plug in a USB type-C cable, they’ll be able to choose the type of connection, depending on whether they want to charge the device, use the device as a battery pack to charge another device, transfer files or photos, or connect to external devices such as keyboards.

Android Pay: Google didn’t talk about the fate of Google Wallet, but it did introduce Android Pay. Like Apple Pay, it’ll allow merchants to accept tap-to-pay transactions at the store, as well as purchases made on mobile apps. So far, about 7,000 merchants have agreed to accept Android Pay. People with Android M devices will be able to authorize payments with their fingerprints, similar to how Apple Pay works with Touch ID.

Power conservation: A new M feature called Doze will help mobile devices conserve battery life. When a device has been left unattended for an extended period, it’ll automatically enter a power-saving mode that will still allow alarms and important notifications to come through. With this feature, Google says, smartphone charges can last twice as long.

Google Photos: The company launched a new photo and video service with unlimited storage. The interface of makes it easy to scan through years of photos and can group photos of the same person over time (even back to birth, as indicated by the conference demo). The app also can be used to create collages, animations, and movies with soundtracks.

Android TV, Chromecast, and HBO Now: Playing catch-up to Apple, Google announced that HBO’s standalone streaming service, HBO Now, will head to Chromecast and Android devices. The company also revealed that it’s sold 17 million Chromecast devices, and that 20,000 apps have been built for its streaming dongle.

Android Auto: Android Now now has 35 car manufacturers on board, including GM, Hyundai, and Volkswagen. Just this week, Android Auto made its way to its first consumer car: the 2015 Hyundai Sonata.

Android Wear: Updates to Android Wear, the software used in Android smartwatches, include a low-power, always-on mode. This will let people keep useful information, such as directions, on their wrist without the display going dark. New wrist gestures will allow wearers to navigate the menus of a smartwatch so they don’t need to use both hands. And users will be able to add emoji to messages by drawing them on the watch face—the software would then detect and select the proper emoji.

Project Brillo and Weave: Based on Android, Project Brillo is Google’s underlying operating system for connected devices. Google also introduced Weave, a language that will allow internet-of-things devices to communicate with each other, with Nest products, and with smartphones.

A smarter Google Now: Google Now currently helps users plan their days, letting them know when to commute or pulling up boarding passes when they’re at the airport. But the company’s vision is to make it smarter and more actionable. The service is getting better at understanding context, so it can pull up information such as reviews or show times when a movie is referenced. In addition, with more than 100 partners on board for a pilot, it’ll be able to do things like hail an Uber or Lyft, reorder groceries from Instacart, and make restaurant reservations on OpenTable.

Faster loading and offline support: Good news for the next billion: Google has streamlined Search, Chrome, YouTube, and Maps so they work faster on slow internet connections. A more lightweight version of search on mobile is about 10 times smaller and loads 30% faster. Changes to Chrome, such as putting in placeholder images instead of loading actual ones, mean sites are about 80% smaller and use less memory. In some countries, offline access is available for Chrome, YouTube, and Maps.

Cardboard VR: Last year, Google showed off its lo-fi virtual reality headset, which can be constructed from cardboard. The headset has since been redesigned so it takes only three steps to construct and can fit phones with displays of up to 6 inches. The software developer kit will now support iOS as well as Android. Google also announced Expeditions, which will let students take field trips to far-flung parts of the globe using Cardboard.

Immersive 360-degree video: To create immersive video for virtual reality, Google previewed a new multi-camera array that can shoot videos in 360 degrees. Though the idea is to make this system, called Jump, available to anyone, Google also tapped GoPro to build and sell its own array with 16 Hero4 cameras.

Tools to test and increase exposure of apps: Cloud Test Lab, a result of Google’s acquisition last year of Appurify, will let developers easily test their apps on 20 Android devices. Universal App Campaigns will help them advertise their apps across AdMob, YouTube, and search ads in Google Play. Developers only have to set their ad budgets and specify how much they want to spend to add each new user. Google also will offer granular analytics for Google Play listings, so developers know if the photos they’ve chosen are attracting (or deterring) new users.

The question is, would you buy it? See Facebook’s response here and below.

Rather than hearing from the geeks, it may be refreshing to listen the same from Mark Cuban, Shark Tank host and owner of NBA team Dallas Mavericks:

Photo (above) credit: http://thespecialhead.deviantart.com/art/Shadow-people-304525517

I found this excellent MyShadow website which not only explains what digital shadows mean but also provides a useful tool to check what traces one leaves online – by specifying the hardware and software one uses – and best of all, explores ways to mitigate them.

Have fun cleaning up your digital footprints.

With the widespread use of social media during the week-long protests in Hong Kong, including attempts to find phone apps capable of defying potential shutdown of the power grid, this story from The Associated Press below (Credits to The Associated Press) is a timely stern reminder:

The Associated Press
Published: October 2, 2014

HONG KONG — The Chinese government might be using smartphone apps to spy on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, a U.S. security firm said.

The applications are disguised as tools created by activists, said the firm, Lacoon Mobile Security. It said that once downloaded, they give an outsider access to the phone’s address book, call logs and other information.

The identities of victims and details of the servers used “lead us to believe that the Chinese government are behind the attack,” said a Lacoon statement.

China is, along with the United States and Russia, regarded as a leader in cyber warfare research. Security experts say China is a leading source of hacking attacks aimed at foreign governments and companies to computers in China.

The Chinese government has denied engaging in cyberspying and says China is among the biggest victims of hacking attacks.

Lacoon said it found two similar “malicious, fake” apps that appeared to be related. One targets phones that run Apple Inc.’s iOS operating system; the other is meant for phones using Google Inc.’s Android system.

The “very advanced software,” known as an mRAT, or multidimensional requirements analysis tool, “is undoubtedly being backed by a nation state,” the company said. Lacoon said it was calling the software Xsser.

“The Xsser mRAT represents a fundamental shift by nation-state cybercriminals from compromising traditional PC systems to targeting mobile devices,” the company said.

Such “cross-platform attacks” that target both Apple and Android phones are rare, which adds to signs a government is involved, Lacoon said. It said the app might be the first spyware for iOS created by a Chinese government entity.

In May, U.S. prosecutors charged five Chinese military officers with cyberspying and stealing trade secrets from major American companies. A security firm, Mandiant, said last year it traced attacks on American and other companies to a military unit in Shanghai.

In what seems like invasion of privacy scaling to new heights, surpassing even the most dystopian state of any hardcore Orwellian, Americans found to their horror of not only having to live with NSA snoops on all their private communications when a recent Popular Science report revealed the existence of fake cellphone towers across the US that cannot be linked to any owner or operator and set up simply to connect to nearby phones, bypassing encryption to eavesdrop on calls and read text messages.

As many as 17 such fake cellphone towers have been discovered in July alone, with more expected to be found, according to the map above charted out in August by ESD America CEO Les Goldsmith and phone technology expert.

What’s more disturbing is that most of the fake towers are set up near US military bases which prompts the question if these were US or foreign government interceptors.

These interceptors are radio-equipped devices to overcome the onboard encryption on our phones, Android or iOS alike. Their target is actually another operating system hidden behind every phone called the baseband processor, which channels the communications between the core OS and the cellphone towers.

And these towers are unlikely to belong to the NSA as the agency can simply go the local phone carriers to suck up all the metadata, as the Snowden revelations have revealed.

It would be interesting to keep an eye on the US Federal Communications Commission which The Washington Post announced early August that it is investigating into the use and misuse of surveillance technology by criminal networks and foreign intelligence.