Researchers craft Android app that reveals to find horrific menagerie of hidden spyware; legally barred from doing the same with iOS

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: November 25, 2017 at 3:21:12 PM EST
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Researchers craft Android app that reveals to find horrific menagerie of hidden spyware; 
> legally barred from doing the same with iOS
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> Researchers craft Android app that reveals to find horrific menagerie of hidden spyware; legally barred from doing 
> the same with iOS
> By Cory Doctorow
> Nov 25 2017
> <https://boingboing.net/2017/11/25/la-la-la-cant-hear-you.html>
>
> Yale Privacy Lab and Exodus Privacy's devastating report on the dozens of invasive, dangerous "trackers" hidden in 
> common Android apps was generated by writing code that spied on their target devices' internal operations, uncovering 
> all manner of sneaking trickery.
>
> it would be great if we had effective regulatory oversight and the power to seek legal relief from these companies 
> for lying to us and/or sneaking spyware into our lives; but every bit as important is the right to independently 
> audit their actions (as Privacy Lab and Exodus have done) and to install code that overrides the undesirable 
> functions of this spyware -- for example, by blocking its communications or chaffing it with plausible garbage data.
>
> The Exodus Privacy app's functionality is key to attaining the first goal, gathering independent evidence about the 
> conduct of mobile firms and app providers. Without that evidentiary basis, there's no way to know you need self-help 
> measures, nor is there any way to convince regulators to take action, nor is there the possibility of creating public 
> clamour for competing products that would spur investors and entrepreneurs to make tools that let you reclaim control 
> over your device.
>
> As Exodus and Yale note, these trackers are almost certainly also present in iOS: the companies that make them 
> advertise their iOS compatibility, for one thing. But iOS is DRM-locked and it's a felony -- punishable by a 5-year 
> prison sentence and a $500,000 fine for a first offense in the USA under DMCA 1201, and similar provisions of Article 
> 6 of the EUCD in France where Exodus is located -- to distribute tools that bypass this DRM, even for the essential 
> work of discovering whether billions of people are at risk due to covert spying from the platform.
>
> It's true that the US Copyright Office gave us a soon-to-expire exemption to this rule that started in 2016, but that 
> exemption only allows Exodus to use that tool; it doesn't allow Exodus to make that tool, or to distribute it so 
> independent researchers can investigate iOS.
>
> [snip]
>
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