An Alarming Trend...

[divinebovine]

Theres battery charging cases available. Basicly a fat heavy case that charges the battery when it gets low :thumbup:

Hah! Someone was thinking outside the box...or outside the cover at least! So it's a case that includes an integrated battery and USB connector?

 

[JIMV]

You are storing it on a device that Google has control over.

You raise a good issue but I am not sure if this is a problem. If one does not store files in Google play file locations, how would Google find your evil files? I have not even opened the Google play app since I have owned the phone. My video and picture files are in files associated with apps called video and photo vault. My music is found in folders I created on the SD card.

 

[funkylogik]

Hah! Someone was thinking outside the box...or outside the cover at least! So it's a case that includes an integrated battery and USB connector?

Guessin thats how it works bro

 

[Medion]

My GS3 has both: a removable battery and an SD slot. unfortunately it's a royal PAIN to remove that unibody back to get at the SD slot, and it requires powering the phone off before it will recognize it. i tried, it refuses to hot-mount the card if inserted while it's on. such a PITA that i am not replacing the 8GB card that is in it now.

That's weird. My S4 allows me to hot mount it. I place the SD card in, and the navigate to settings --> storage, scroll to the bottom, and select "mount SD card."

Couldn't do it on my S2, because I had to remove the battery to get to the MicroSD slot.

 

[Hadron]

You raise a good issue but I am not sure if this is a problem. If one does not store files in Google play file locations, how would Google find your evil files? I have not even opened the Google play app since I have owned the phone. My video and picture files are in files associated with apps called video and photo vault. My music is found in folders I created on the SD card.

Agreed. Google will have a kill switch for stuff installed via the Play Store, as other companies have (e.g. Amazon ironically demonstrated this by deleting copies of 1984 from people's Kindles a couple of years ago). But they don't have any link to any of my media.

Plus it would be the death of the platform if they were to try to go into the device and remove stuff you didn't get from them, and that *would* hurt their bottom line.

 

[funkylogik]

Yeah i know google can/have remove/d harmful apps from peoples device but media...?

 

[jhawkkw]

The new device manager can hypothetically remote factory reset your device if you choose to. If you have the stock recovery installed, that would wipe you media out.

 

[new optimus]

The new device manager can hypothetically remote factory reset your device if you choose to. If you have the stock recovery installed, that would wipe you media out.

Though that would depend on if your using a phone with external sd card or not.

Most factory wipes (stock recovery) can/do wipe the internal sd card but not the external one.

 

[jhawkkw]

Though that would depend on if your using a phone with external sd card or not.

Most factory wipes (stock recovery) can/do wipe the internal sd card but not the external one.

Very true. But as the original thread topic so adeptly pointed out, the trend has been towards internal memory only.

 

[funkylogik]

Something i hadnt thought of that a dude on g+ raised today is for us flashers who keep nandroids on our external SD, all it takes is for a tech-savvy theif to restore a nandroid and theyd have everything lol

Also. On a phone with custom recovery, would a remote wipe even wipe the whole data partition?

 

[divinebovine]

You raise a good issue but I am not sure if this is a problem. If one does not store files in Google play file locations, how would Google find your evil files? I have not even opened the Google play app since I have owned the phone. My video and picture files are in files associated with apps called video and photo vault. My music is found in folders I created on the SD card.

So here are the questions...

Do you trust the open source peer review process to actually review everything and find anything untoward?

Do you trust the closed source parts, like Google Play, that have plenty of access to all kinds of stuff?

That's the issue of it being Google-powered and potentially Google-controlled...not that you might also have stuff in the cloud (that one is so much a given that we don't even need to discuss it to know that if they are motivated to they will do whatever they want with it).

Plus it would be the death of the platform if they were to try to go into the device and remove stuff you didn't get from them, and that *would* hurt their bottom line.

...and this is the biggest source of trust that we can have. As long as their hubris does not grow too much, they will continue to know that they risk their success and even their existence (the company, not the individuals) by violating our trust. That leaves them able to get away with some violations but hopefully not too much.

 

[JIMV]

Very true. But as the original thread topic so adeptly pointed out, the trend has been towards internal memory only.

Which is my complaint...the new phones prevent users from any real degree of privacy and seems to keep total control of the phone you supposedly 'own'...The only protection is a phone with an SD slot and a removable battery.

 

[Hadron]

I don't get why an sd slot helps with privacy - put the card in a network connected device and it's contents are no more private than the same content in internal memory. Sure, I can remove it, and I can remove files from internal storage, but mist people will use the one card in their phone all of the time.

There are advantages, but I don't see privacy as a big one.

 

[funkylogik]

Which is my complaint...the new phones prevent users from any real degree of privacy and seems to keep total control of the phone you supposedly 'own'...The only protection is a phone with an SD slot and a removable battery.

Noone is preventing you from doing anything though. You CHOOSE to put your data/info into a device. Using an electronic communication device is a choice not a right

 

[jhawkkw]

Which is my complaint...the new phones prevent users from any real degree of privacy and seems to keep total control of the phone you supposedly 'own'...The only protection is a phone with an SD slot and a removable battery.

If anything, internal storage is more private that external storage. If someone steals your phone, it's quite easy for them to just pop your external sd card out and have access to all your files. If you bootloader is locked, stock recovery is installed, usb debugging is off, and you have a password in order to login, you're files are protected from someone who steaks your phone.

 

[funkylogik]

Bit off topic but you got me thinking, i wonder if a password lock could be added to a custom recovery?

 

[jhawkkw]

Bit off topic but you got me thinking, i wonder if a password lock could be added to a custom recovery?

I guess hypothetically it would be possible, but what's to stop an experienced rooter from just simply flashing over the custom recovery with a new one if the bootloader is unlocked.

 

[funkylogik]

Good point man i hadnt even thought about bootloader/download mode :thumbup:

 

[JIMV]

Noone is preventing you from doing anything though. You CHOOSE to put your data/info into a device. Using an electronic communication device is a choice not a right

Is that not a lot like saying 'there is no violation of the 4th amendment if I seize your letters as no one forces you to write them. You CHOSE to write"

Your data is protected from warrantless seizure by the Constitution. That the government ignores the Constitution says more about our governance than my data.

 

[JIMV]

If anything, internal storage is more private that external storage. If someone steals your phone, it's quite easy for them to just pop your external sd card out and have access to all your files. If you bootloader is locked, stock recovery is installed, usb debugging is off, and you have a password in order to login, you're files are protected from someone who steaks your phone.

All true unless you are the government doing a data trawl. Then all defenses are moot.

 

[Thatdad]

Don't think for a second Google does not have back doors in their software. Contingency plans galore.

But seriously, it's their software. We may own the actual device but the software is technically licensed under Google. Unless you have a rom which is obviously not theirs. Why do you think rooting voids your warranty?

 

[funkylogik]

Is that not a lot like saying 'there is no violation of the 4th amendment if I seize your letters as no one forces you to write them. You CHOSE to write"

Your data is protected from warrantless seizure by the Constitution. That the government ignores the Constitution says more about our governance than my data.

sorry but i live in that tiny part of the planet outside the USA so youre gona have to explain the 4th ammendment to me (seriously lol)
When you log into an android device with gapps on it you check the box saying "i agree". Same as when you sign up to facebook or have an operation
Ps please dont ever think im defending the US or Uk Governments. i have my opinions on them but this is the wrong place to express them lol :beer:

 

[mikedt]

Are we getting too political again?

 

[Thatdad]

Is that not a lot like saying 'there is no violation of the 4th amendment if I seize your letters as no one forces you to write them. You CHOSE to write"

Your data is protected from warrantless seizure by the Constitution. That the government ignores the Constitution says more about our governance than my data.

If you agree to someone's TOS, no, it doesn't apply. People can technically still sign indentured servant contracts.

Not so many rights there.

But anyway, yeah no one here can say they actually have sat there and read the whole TOS agreement.

 

[funkylogik]

Nope. i havent. so i cant complain when something comes back and bites me lol. Actually one of my family was in our national newspaper recently for something she posted on fb which could now cost her her job. Not sure if im allowed to post a link to the story here(?)
She's certainly learned her lesson about this kinda thing lol!