www/proprietary proprietary-surveillance.html

[rsiddharth]

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     rsiddharth <rsd>        18/01/16 22:09:34

Modified files:
        proprietary    : proprietary-surveillance.html 

Log message:
        [RT#1261736] Add Android apps surveillance.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/proprietary/proprietary-surveillance.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.170&r2=1.171

Patches:
Index: proprietary-surveillance.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/proprietary/proprietary-surveillance.html,v
retrieving revision 1.170
retrieving revision 1.171
diff -u -b -r1.170 -r1.171
--- proprietary-surveillance.html       3 Jan 2018 17:32:14 -0000       1.170
+++ proprietary-surveillance.html       17 Jan 2018 03:09:33 -0000      1.171
@@ -339,6 +339,40 @@
 
 <ul>
 <li>
+  <p>20 dishonest Android apps
+      recorded <a 
href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/07/stealthy-google-play-apps-recorded-calls-and-stole-e-mails-and-texts";>phone
+      calls and sent them and text messages and emails to
+      snoopers</a>.</p>
+
+  <p>Google did not intend to make these apps spy; on the contrary, it
+    worked in various ways to prevent that, and deleted these apps
+    after discovering what they did. So we cannot blame Google
+    specifically for the snooping of these apps.</p>
+
+  <p>On the other hand, Google redistributes nonfree Android apps, and
+    therefore shares in the responsibility for the injustice of their
+    being nonfree. It also distributes its own nonfree apps, such as
+    Google
+    Play, <a href="/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html">which
+      are malicious</a>.</p>
+
+  <p>Could Google have done a better job of preventing apps from
+    cheating?  There is no systematic way for Google, or Android
+    users, to inspect executable proprietary apps to see what they
+    do.</p>
+
+  <p>Google could demand the source code for these apps, and study the
+    source code somehow to determine whether they mistreat users in
+    various ways. If it did a good job of this, it could more or less
+    prevent such snooping, except when the app developers are clever
+    enough to outsmart the checking.</p>
+
+  <p>But since Google itself develops malicious apps, we cannot trust
+    Google to protect us. We must demand release of source code to the
+    public, so we can depend on each other.</p>
+  </p>
+</li>
+<li>
   <p>A
     <a 
href="https://research.csiro.au/ng/wp-content/uploads/sites/106/2016/08/paper-1.pdf";>
       research paper</a> that investigated the privacy and security
@@ -1562,7 +1596,7 @@
 
 <p class="unprintable">Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2018/01/03 17:32:14 $
+$Date: 2018/01/17 03:09:33 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>