It looks like Palm may be pulling a Big Brother on Pre owners without their knowledge — until now, anyway. This morning, developer Joey Hess publicly examined a portion of webOS code that reports information back to Palm in order to determine exactly what info the manufacturer is retrieving behind the scenes. What he uncovered, loosely put, is pretty uncool. Pre handsets report at least the following info back to Palm daily:
Your location
Which apps you’ve used and for how long
Your app crash logs
Which apps you have installed
Now, this discovery raises all kinds of issues surrounding ethics, disclosure, privacy and a host of other touchy subjects. As with all privacy policies, Palm’s is BS sketchy shady unclear vague broad enough to likely cover such invasions of privacy.
Sprint already has a log of every web server I visit with my Pre via EVDO. Sprint already has a log of my gps track whenever I use google maps or sprint nav. Sprint already has a log of every email address I get email from or to. Sprint already has a log of every phone number I get or make a call to. Sprint already has a log of every sms message I get or make. Sprint has the ability to have a log of every cell tower I ping into. Sprint has the ability to read every email I send or receive.
What, exactly, is it that I'm risking in terms of my privacy that palm gets crash logs and usage time of apps again?
Yawn. Who cares?
Comment by yYHUyFYOl_q0soVNxfeEAk83.7PkYxo-#f45cf [me.yahoo.com/a] — 17 hours and 55 minutes ago
I do, for example. I'm not going to freak out or anything, but it is one of the many reasons I prefer maemo and the ability to modify the source code in my own machines.
Anyway, be happy that now Palm Inc has dibs on your data too, not just Sprint.
No hostility meant. I was showing how others felt about it. Some people seem not to care how much info is gather from them while using the net, others seems to want to use the net without leaving a trace that they were ever there (me).
I got a message from my carrier Sprint yesterday -- Palm has a new phone already, the Palm Pxi. This seems awfully quick. It appears to me to be a cheaper Pre.
I got a message from my carrier Sprint yesterday -- Palm has a new phone already, the Palm Pxi. This seems awfully quick. It appears to me to be a cheaper Pre.
for some reason Palm has decided to put this phonne out with NO WIFI!?
