[aklug] Re: OFFTOPIC (sort of) android and ATT samsung S4 Active. And a question.

On Wed, July 31, 2013 9:52 pm, Arthur Corliss wrote:
> On Wed, 31 Jul 2013, Christopher Howard wrote:
>
>> Nevertheless, it is a little hard to see curmudgeon's "hyprocrisy". The
>> source code for Android is out there, so you can know for yourself what
>> it does and doesn't do. Of course, your typical Android will be filled
>> with Google spyware and DRM junk... but curm's point was that, if you
>> can unlock the phone, at least you can install Cyanogen Mod and get a
>> phone that is pretty much completely under your control. So I'd be a
>> little ticked off as well if I found out that the "active" version of my
>> old phone completely locked me out.
>
> I understand his frustration regarding the hardware, I think the hypocrisy
> lies in AT&T (or any carrier) pinging his paranoia RADAR, but the Google
> platform doesn't. Particularly when, as I stated, Google's privacy invasion
> is much more pervasive across all access devices, and you're legally giving
> permission to do much more hideous things than a carrier would, or can, do.

AT&T gives the NSA direct, total access to the massive amounts of
data flowing through their system. No warrants, no suspicion, and
how exactly do you opt out?

https://www.eff.org/nsa/hepting

By all means, let's not give Google a pass, but neither does AT&T
deserve one.

On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 12:41:50AM -0800, Arthur Corliss wrote:
> Hell, if AT&T did surreptitiously record your activity at least you'd have
> some legal avenue to pursue since it was done without your acknowledgement
> and permission.

Not true. Congress and Bush decided to give AT&T immunity from both
criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits related to their illegal
rerouting of customer's conversations. See above link. If you doubt
that what AT&T is doing is illegal, ask yourself why they would need
immunity.

Imagine if an apartment complex had cameras in every unit, with the
feeds routed directly to the government so they could watch just in
case some tenant is planning a terrorist attack. Then you'd have an
idea of where AT&T's morality stands.

--
Bryan Medsker
bryanm@acsalaska.net
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