Android Users Beware....Or so I'm told????????

Just had these here links passed onto me as I was thinking about installing an Android tablet/pad in my Jimny for the GPS etc.
Also applies to the smart phones that use the Android system as well.


RE The Android. My mate is a microsoft trained computer engineer and we were having an in-depth discussion about the Androids and using them with memory map, as he has just purchased the latest version of memory map (V5) for his netbook and I was thinking of getting one. He said the Android was very good. However there is a privacy issue problem with them due to them being powered by software, which is owned by Google. The Android record every single key press you can’t switch it off from doing that, so when you plug it onto the net to upgrade anything on it then Google gets automatically advised of everything you have used it for, including bank codes and passwords and any iffy websites you have been into. Google say they don’t use the data collected but it can be obtained and used by third party sources, more so if someone knicks it and hacks in for sensitive data. Google also say the location tracking, ie wherever you were whilst it was switched on, is an ‘opt in’ part of the software, but apparently it still records where you have been and whenever you pass a wifi access point it automatically uploads the data without your knowledge to Google. Also noted was that the UK, or other countries, government departments can access the data for their own use.


He advised me to type ‘Android Privacy’ into Google and look through what came up. I did that this morning and was glad he told me about it. After reading through some of the links I won’t be getting one now!

Read these:-

www.infosecisland.com/blogview/13868-And...es-997-of-Users.html

www.electronista.com/articles/11/04/28/s...ting.worse.than.ios/

www.fastcompany.com/1747058/android-data...ivacy-north-carolina



Mmmm....Interesting.

Except that those articles don't really say that it records every key stroke. They refer to three things, the first being that rogue or leaky applications can be snooped for key strokes, the second being that the wifi encryption tokens are left on the device which would allow apps to snoop data and thirdly that location information is shared.

For location information, your phone company has collected that as part of the cell records so they know where you are anyway.

For keystroke or wifi intercepting, this has been heavily achieved within the Microsoft world anyway! I was in a court case a few years ago where the Police forensics people showed what Microsoft had captured about an event on a PC inlcuing keystorks and timing of key strokes.

In simple terms, anything has its flaws from pen and paper through to the most sophisticated device so just be careful with them all.

With handheld devices just make sure they can be remotely erased so when you loose them that they can be "bricked".

I have a net book but don't know if to fit a tablet or the net book into the Jim.
I've read that Android are making an Ap so that you can put Memory Maps on your phone/tablet.
Oh, which to fit?

Net book will need GPS and a twig (wires)!
Tablet has GPS and a built in twig. (no wires)

?????

I've got version 4 of Memory Map and have been using it in my other car on an iPaq 2210 for several years. But the screen is getting too small now that I'm getting older.

I'm hoping to use the Memory Map on a 10" tablet I've acquired which runs XP. It takes 12v DC which is dead handy, so I'll knock up a regulator circuit for it (my Jimny chucks out 14.5 volts when it gets excited). I'll be using a USB GPS - they don't take up much room. I don't want to do anything else with the tablet, so I'll turn the WiFi & other stuff off.

I quite like running xp. It's cr*p, but predictably so.

I can't decide what to do.
The net book feels to be the easiest way to go and the easiest to mount?

How much are the Memor Maps nowadays?

Keefe wrote: How much are the Memory Maps nowadays?

Dunno what the current Version 5 costs - possibly about £50 per map. There are offers like ....this one on ebay.

I got the whole country on version 4 for £ 14.99.

Mind you that was a few years ago...... when eBay was allowed to sell 'used' software. :whistle:

It's out of date now but the off road details won't have changed much (hopefully).

I'm hoping to use a RAM windscreen sucker mount and screw it into a homemade tray sort-of-thingy.

Don't be daft people, Android doesn't record key strokes and upload them to google.That would be the biggest privacy scandal ever. have you not heard recently about the fuss with ipad over recording tracking information on the phone?

imagine the fuss if keystrokes were involved. I work proffesionally with android and it doesnt record stuff like that. Admittedly it post loaction data for use with google latitue but ONLY if you turn the feature on.

I wish people would get off the hacker thing. The number of hackers is so incredibly small as to make the chances of you or anyone you know being hacked something equivilent to winning the euromillions, twice.

lastley remeber the most important part of this, why the hell would a hacker or anyone for that matter pick some guys phone to see him go to work and back everyday. hackers these days dont go for nor care about small fry, they go after websites and their aim is to cause the most disruption and faff.

the most recent example is the playstation network. 100 million accounts, again the chances of it being you or your details they use is 100 million to 1.

if you really want to see hacker activity go here www.2600.org/ its probably the closest you are likley to come to it.

What I posted was a reply I got from one of my mates when I mentioned getting an Android running tablet. He happened to have been talking to one of his friends, a Microsoft engineer, apparently, and it was his reply with examples that I posted.
Me knowing nothing much about technology and not wanting to, just thought it might be of some interest.
My only comment about it was, "Mmm...interesting."
My main (not much of one in the larger scheme of things) problem is/was which to try and fit in the Jim, tablet or my net book just for maps etc for, if ever, I get back on the road and want to do some lanes.

Didn't mean to wind you up, pengy.

lol tis ok, i was feelin a bit wound up in general. it was a release of opinion caused by years of people moaning about hackers, caused in most by people on games complaining about aimbot when the fact is that they just can't play the game very well.

....and a small hint at my past

Hmmm "Interesting" ..

sounds like scaremongering to keep the tinfoil hat wearing crowd busy.

Android running tablet?????

Is that a pill to give me robotic legs?

Keefe wrote: Android running tablet?????

Is that a pill to give me robotic legs?

lol yes, there is a similar one which intergrates a tinfoil hat onto your head.