Smartphones have most definitely changed the way we communicate with each other. This revolution in communications began not with Smartphones or the iPhone, but with the internet and computers. Already, back in the late 90s, in the era of instant messenger and the early days of VoIP technology, distances across the globe became obsolete. Communicating with a friend across the street, or on the other side of the world, happened at the speed of light.
In the 90s and early 2000s, the communications revolution belonged to wealthy countries. Countries, where its citizens, could afford to purchase a computer and pay for internet access. Although Smartphones had been around circa 2003, it was the launch of the first iPhone that changed the trajectory of innovation and reach. The iPhone was first released in 2007 and it sold like hotcakes. Before the iPhone, HP, Compaq and Palm dominated. Before 2007, smartphones were more like miniaturized computers. In fact, they ran a version of Windows called PocketPC (and PalmOS). The software was clunky and only techies used them. In fact, prior to the iPhone, you carried two devices with you; a Razr phone and PocketPC.
Fast-forward to today and most people would not even remember the days of PocketPCs and Razr phones. Much less the cost wireless internet service (which was not unlimited). No, with the advent of cheap mobile phones and affordable wireless plans (most of which include unlimited data), everyone is connected. Everyone. Not only wealthy countries like it was the case in the early days of computers and the internet.
And like everything in life, there are consequences to this revolution in communication. The biggest looser is our privacy. Privacy is like electricity or the garbage man. Nobody pays attention when it’s there. They take it for granted. But as soon as stops working, it stinks 🙂 Privacy is a broad subject that I will not attempt to address in this post. Rather, I want to give you a quick and easy way to retain some of the privacy you still have left. All you need to do is limit the type and number of apps you install on your phone. Apps, once installed on your phone, have a lot of access to your life. Most people will install apps without paying attention to the permissions they accept.
For a long time, Facebook was on the cross hairs of privacy advocates because as part of its installation procedure, it would mostly ask you to give its app full access to you phone. There were a bunch of rumors the FB app would listen to your conversations and use them to provide tailored ads. For example, if it listened to you talking about looking for a car, your FB feed would suddenly begin showing ads for new cars. There were many conflicting articles about it and it was never proven concretely.
But a few days back proof emerged La Liga, Spain’s national soccer championship, was in fact using the phone’s microphone to listen in. It emerged their app, which does not provide streaming of the matches, but instead it’s more a companion app that provides score and news updates, was taking advantage of the user’s smartphone microphone to listen for illegal streaming of the matches.
Yes, La Liga’s app, during installation, would ask users for permission to access their microphone and location and most agreed. Users of the app would then congregate at local bars and restaurants to watch the match and have a drink. It was then, the app would utilize the microphone and listen. Supposedly, it would listen for a sound signature which resembled the match. If it found it, it would send the Geo-location information back to La Liga’s servers. There, software could identify if the sound signature and location matched places where viewership of the event had been licensed. And this is not a hypothetical example, their own terms of service state so:
Cuando te descargues o actualices la APP, el sistema operativo de tu dispositivo móvil te solicitará a través de una ventana emergente que facilites tu consentimiento para que LaLiga pueda activar el micrófono de tu dispositivo móvil. Sólo si decides aceptarlo, el micrófono captará fragmentos de audio con el único objeto de poder conocer si estás viendo partidos de fútbol. Las finalidades para las que se utilizará esta funcionalidad son: (i) elaborar patrones estadísticos sobre consumo de fútbol y (ii) detectar explotaciones fraudulentas de las retransmisiones de los partidos de fútbol de LaLiga (piratería). Puedes consultar más información acerca de cada una de estas finalidades en el apartado 5 de esta Política de Privacidad
La Liga’s Terms of Service
Of course, La Liga claims it would only capture audio fragments (signature) and that you had to give the app access in the first place. But where is the proof only audio fragments are captured. More importantly, what is the guarantee a future app update, which happen often, would not change this?
Here we have a legitimate company, La Liga is one of the largest in Europe, in a country with very strict privacy protections (Spain and the EU) and we see this happening. What hope do we have something worse cannot (or does not) happen in the US where our privacy protections are much more relaxed?
What options do we have left? To remove unnecessary apps immediately. Apps can (not always) make access to some information more convenient, but most times, this same information is accessible on their website. Yes, convenience has a price. But its the cost in privacy is too high for me to swallow. I’ll just use my smartphones browser 😀
