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| Looks like the Devil is holding a smartphone... |
One of the big benefits of smartphones are "location services" which by there very definition have to know where you are. Gumstir and Facebook now have features that you can use to let your "friends" know where you are in order to join some social activity (the new Facebook "check in" feature).
All I need do is fool you into thinking I am your "Facebook friend" and I have complete access to your life and you tell me where you are right now. Fooling you into accepting me as a friend is no hard considering how little people really check things like Facebook friends: All I need to do is copy the photo of a friend off your page, make a new Facebook account and friend you claiming my previous Facebook account was stolen or hacked. No one would give that a second thought.
Now I would think that from a stalkers perspective surely there is no better model for acquiring prey than something like this - the prey literally flaunts where they are and what they are doing - far more than could be expected even five years ago before all this was invented.
From what I can see there is little danger in some creep stealing your iPhone and decoding the connections.db file I talked about last post. First they'd have to steal your phone (which would require proximity to you) and then track down your movements by decoding the database. But, you say, what if I left my phone in a bar or restaurant? Then what?
To my mind this seems even more ridiculous and remote. More than likely the "finder" will be one of the waitstaff - and if they were really able to debug and hack their way into the iPhone security settings its unlikely they'd be working as waitstaff. Then they would have to develop a keen interest in you from you smartphone - as opposed to becoming obsessed with you from your general appearance only.
And waitstaff can always ask for "id" - it happens to me when I present a credit card with a smudgy signature. And what, pray tell is on my ID (drivers license, passport, etc.)?
Why my home address and a picture confirm that it is in fact my home address.
The very things you want kept secret must be disclosed to the lowest echelons of society in order to purchase a meal in a restaurant.
What sense does than make?
The real problems here are stupidity and ignorance.
Ignorance in the sense that most people really have no clue what sort of bread crumbs they are leaving behind in their lives using these devices.
Stupidity in that the notion of vanity ("oh look what I am doing") overwhelms common sense about personal security.
Its perfectly legal for a jealous spouse to hire a private detective to track someone down - discovering where they are, where they go, who they see. No one gives this a second thought. And stalking laws only apply if you know you are being stalked - someone who remains unseen in the background is not a stalker until they actually expose themselves or strike.
Most all online social networking is essentially "public" in the sense that there is a low cost of entry to engage someone as a "social friend" in this context. If it was easy to lie before the advent of Facebook Facebook has made lying about who and what you are even easier.
In the olden days of phone numbers and physically meeting no one was your friend unless you saw to it that they were - by giving them a phone number, address or other personal information. In order to give the personal information you physically had to engage with the person - on a date, at some get-together, etc. You did not run out in public shouting about who and what you were hoping to find "friends". If you did you were a looney.
You might go to a party and meet someone interesting - given them a phone number as safe because there was little reason to expect them to reverse that phone number into a location. The owner of the phone number could control how and where any meetings took place - making sure they were in public until the motives of the potential friend were fully vetted.
No long.
If you want security you actually have to behave as if its important and keep information away from public sites. If you carry around devices that help you to automatically find "friends" expect these devices to know about you - not just in secret files but in text messages, phone numbers, and the like - all of which are easily and more readily accessible.
The Faustian bargain here is that the phones (and Facebook and all the rest) appeal to the "15 minutes of fame" aspect of peoples lives - and people, for the most part, like to feel famous and socially visible. The makers of the devices could not ask for a better reason for people to buy these devices than this type of vanity.
If you willfully purchase a smartphone and load it up with "social networking" then you should expect problems with personal security.
Anything else would be foolish.
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