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Content type: Long Read
24th February 2020
Valentine’s Day is traditionally a day to celebrate relationships, but many relationships that begin romantically can quickly become controlling, with partners reading emails, checking texts and locations of social media posts. This can be just the beginning.
Today, Friday 14th February, Privacy International and Women’s Aid are launching a series of digital social media cards giving women practical information on how to help stay safe digitally from control and abuse.
Did you know that…
Content type: Examples
8th December 2018
In September 2018, researchers discovered that websites accessed via mobile phones could access an array of device sensors, unlike apps, which request permissions for such access. The researchers found that 3,695 of the top 100,000 websites incorporate scripts that tap into one or more sensors, including Wayfair, Priceline, and Kayak. Unlike location sensors, motion, lighting, and proximity sensors have no mechanism for notifying users and requesting permission. Ad blockers were not effective…
Content type: Examples
12th August 2019
In October 2018, the Singapore-based startup LenddoEFL was one of a group of microfinance startups aimed at the developing world that used non-traditional types of data such as behavioural traits and smartphone habits for credit scoring. Lenddo's algorithm uses numerous data points, including the number of words a person uses in email subject lines, the percentage of photos in a smartphone's library that were taken with a front-facing camera, and whether they regularly use financial apps on…
Content type: Examples
19th December 2018
In November 2016, the security contractor Krytowire discovered that cheap Chinese Android phones often include pre-installed software that monitors users' locations, messaging, and contacts, and sends the gathered information to China every 72 hours. Shanghai Adups Technology Company, the Chinese firm responsible for the software, said its code had been installed on more than 700 million phones, cars, and other devices without informing users, but that it was not intended for American phones.…
Content type: Examples
19th December 2018
In July 2018, researchers at the London-based security and mobile commerce firm Upstream Systems found that millions of cheap smartphones sold in developing countries lacking privacy protections come with pre-installed apps that harvest users' data for the purpose of targeting advertising and that can only be removed with difficulty. One such app, which Singtech includes on the thousands of smartphones it sells in Myanmar and Cambodia, as well as others sold in Brazil or made by Indian and…
Content type: Explainer
19th September 2019
Abstract
Over the past few years, smart phones have become incredibly inexpensive, connecting millions of people to the internet for the first time. While growing connectivity is undeniably positive, some device vendors have recently come under scrutiny for harvesting user data and invasive private data collection practices.
Due to the open-source nature of the Android operating system vendors can add pre-installed apps (often called “bundled apps” or "bloatware") to mobile phones. In 2019, …
Content type: Explainer
24th June 2019
We look at the recently published report on forensic science in the UK, highlight concerns about police not understanding new tech used to extract data from mobile phones; the risk of making incorrect inferences and the general lack of understanding about the capabilities of these tools.
The delivery of justice depends on the integrity and accuracy of evidence and trust that society has in it. So starts the damning report of the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee’s report…
Content type: Explainer
22nd February 2018
Phone networks are divided between two networks: the physical and the mobile. The physical runs on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) that serves your home phone. Mobile networks are dominant in the age of communication and are used to relay mobile communications to the PSTN. The most prominent mobile networks are GSM networks (Global System for Mobile communications) and are what we use everyday to communicate with one another. Another system is known as CDMA (Code Division Multiple…
Content type: Examples
16th July 2018
Google launched its first version of Android in 2009. Based on a modified Linux kernel and other open source software, Android provides the operating system for mobile phones, tablets, televisions, cars, wrist watches, and many other devices including digital cameras, game consoles, PCs, and personal video recorders. By 2017, Android had become the best-selling operating system in the world, with over 2 billion monthly active users. Even in 2009, critics warned that the operating system, which…
Content type: Examples
17th May 2019
In February 2019 Google engineers announced that they had created faster, more efficient encryption system that could function on less-expensive Android phones that were too low-powered to implement existing full-device encryption. The scheme, known as Adiantum, uses established and well-vetted encryption tools and principles. Android has required smartphones to support encryption since 2015's version 6, but low-end devices were exempt because of the performance hit. It will now be up to device…
Content type: Case Study
30th August 2017
Gig economy jobs that depend on mobile applications allow workers’ movements to be monitored, evaluated, and exploited by their employers.
The so-called “gig economy” has brought to light employers’ increasing ability and willingness to monitor employee performance, efficiency, and overall on-the-job conduct. Workplace surveillance of gig economy workers often happens without employees’ awareness or consent. This is especially evident in the app-based gig economy, where apps act both as an…
Content type: Explainer
31st March 2020
In a scramble to track, and thereby stem the flow of, new cases of Covid-19, Governments around the world are rushing to track the locations of their populace. One way to do this is to write a smartphone app which uses Bluetooth technology, and encourage (or mandate) that individuals download and use the app. We have seen such examples in Singapore and emerging plans in the UK.
Apps that use Bluetooth are just one way to track location. There are several different technologies in a smartphone…
Content type: Examples
5th May 2018
The Danish company Blip Systems deploys sensors in cities, airports, and railway stations to help understand and analyse traffic flows and improve planning. In the UK's city of Portsmouth, a network of BlipTrack sensors was installed in 2013 by VAR Smart CCTV, and the data it has collected is used to identify problem areas and detect changing traffic patterns. The city hope that adding more sensors to identify individual journeys will help reduce commuting times, fuel consumption, and vehicular…