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It's time to stop calling these things "phones!"

I call them personal spy devices. I laughed when all the mainstream media was reporting about the location databases as if that was something to worry about. Let me list a few things that worry me more.

Police agencies have the ability to plug in any smartphone and copy all data off it. Michigan is using this now during routine traffic stops. Since courts have already said that police do not need a warrant to search phones on your person I guess there is no privacy at all if you get stopped with your cell. Look up CelleBrite UFED.

Apps sending data, see Pandora, and lots of it. Back when Pandora was in the news for this it was said that so much data was being sent by Pandora to ad agencies that if they pieced the info together they could actually figure out who you were. Lovely.

Apps now turn on your microphone and camera at different intervals and collect that information and send it back to themselves. Remember that way too over hyped app called Color? It would turn on both and record the audio and images and send them back to their servers. They aren't the only ones doing it either. Technically any app that asks for mic or camera access can do this. How fun would your "phone" be if you couldn't take pictures or talk to people on it? I have a couple apps like photobooth and picsay pro that I would hate to lose. How many apps do you have that request access to your sdcard? Any of them could then take all the photos, text files or videos and send them back to their servers. So much for any privacy if you want to use these devices.
 
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