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Comment by rayraegah | Hacker News Reader

It's not just ad fraud, they've been copying information like whatsapp phone number, reddit username, telegram username etc.

https://www.reddit.com/r/miband/comments/8eqtve/why_did_mifi...

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I keep sounding like a broken record. This is not for your "average user" but I use two methods to block all data transmissions for applications that doesn't make sense to have internet connections (e.g. a selfie app):

a) The device's App-Data settings. I keep most boxes unchecked. I don't understand why CamScanner (legit super useful app) needs internet connection when I just email myself all the scans, and not using the cloud-options. Only Email needs internet connection on that scenario.

b) NoRoot Firewall, I either recognize the IP or the domain name, or I check on ipaddress.com the IP, and then I end up global-blocking the whole block of that IP and be done with it.

In this world you have to go with Security in mind. Default state is block-everything, and only allow the truly needed/useful (to me, not the app developer) connections to go through.

I know the selfie app was just an example, but what's the point of a selfie app if you can't share the selfies?

Also you are assuming people have due diligence to actually care or understand which permissions an app is requesting and to actually stop long enough to consider the implications. Consider that most of the world is technologically illiterate, and pop-ups will probably at most be a very mild annoyance for end-users who blindly press ALLOW in order to open the app because it has kittens and rainbows.

You can share the selfies with the built-in texting/emailing/social media intents. The app itself doesn't need the networking.

I actually can't believe this. How in the name of all the is holy are we letting them get away with this.

Sure, we talk about the problem a lot. But we need to take action. It seems every big corporation are abusing the trust we give them in some form or another.

Please, for the love of God, can anybody prove me wrong. Are there any companies than don't abuse our trust?

Microsoft, for all their other flaws, usually keeps out of the business of selling their consumers. Perhaps it's because they have better (internal) monetization possibilities.

That's a fair point. I think many companies are doing such bastardly deeds because they can and because it brings in a profit. To some extent, if a company does not need to do such acts to survive & thrive, they will perhaps act more legitimately.

It makes a lot of sense to keep your customers happy in the long run (bottom line and stock value).

Last time I used a Windows computer, there were tons of advertisements in the start menu.

And on the lock screen.

Ads in the start menu? Omnipresent data collection in their crappy new os?

Microsoft sells your browsing and installed apps data to companies

No way - do you know which?

>Are there any companies than don't abuse our trust?

I guess you need to look in the direction of GNU/Linux. For example, company https://puri.sm. They have nice laptops and nice Debian-based OS and they are working on the phone (soon to be released).

Abuse your trust? The better question is why are you trusting them in the first place? If you actually read the TOS of a service, you'd know that they are usually quite forthright with what they are going to do.

If a murderer knocks on your door, informs you that if you let them in they're going to brutally murder you, but you choose to ignore that because they brought you free stuff, you don't get to complain about being murdered later.

>you don't get to complain about being murdered later

Actually, you do; murder is illegal even if you were informed in advance. The same should be with the ad industry. See GDPR.

That is a stupid analogy which I hope I don't even need to explain.

A terms of service is not a free pass to do whatever the fuck you want. Just because I agreed to Apple's terms of service doesn't mean they can turn me into a human centiPad, even if it says so in the small print.

Yes exactly. Not to mention (pun intended) they don't mention in their TOS that they will be abusing their power and doing whatever they want with your data.

They never say that. They just do it.

sigh Serves me right for using an analogy I guess. Or a "stupid" one. I dislike the need to defend against a strawman argument, but it looks like I am going to.

Anyway, you're right, and so are the other people pointing out quite correctly that murder is still illegal and an agreement doesn't magically give them a right to kill me. But you know what isn't illegal? A company selling your data that you gave to them and agreed to allow them to sell in exchange for providing a service. Yes, I know there are some weak protection rules out there, and things like the GDPR exist in some countries. IANAL, but an app using permissions that you gave it, to do things it says it's going to do in its description and/or TOS is not illegal in most countries. If it was, we'd not be in the privacy clusterfuck that we're in today.

The point is that trust has nothing to do with it. If anything, these companies tell you exactly what they're going to do (and if they don't, that's another problem altogether which I'm not getting into here) and you can trust that they will do what they said they're going to do to make as much money from you as they can. Treating companies like living, empathetic human beings worthy of your trust to "be nice and give you a product for free without selling your data you agreed to allow them to sell" is silly.

As far as I know (and can find online) DU group and Xiaomi are unrelated. However, this is a really interesting discovery in it's own right. I am a Xiaomi phone owner and have the App MiFit.

Would it be possible for me to reproduce what you have found? and if so, how can I do so?

https://www.reddit.com/r/miband/comments/8eqtve/comment/dxxj...

I don't know what to make of MiFit copying all such information. I had assumed they copy it to show notifications on the watch. Does Lumen reveal that Xiaomi is sending that data to their own servers?

"Whoops, yet another (totally convenient for our business model) error! But that's okay, because we won't be punished if we say it was an error."

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