Whisper tracks its users. So we tracked down its LA office. This is what happened next We were surprised as anyone when The Guardian revealed that, far from being “the safest place on the internet”, the anonymous messaging app Whisper was tracking the location of its users – even when they specifically denied the app access to their location. Worse, if someone's posts were deemed newsworthy, according to The …
So a privacy storm is going on - and they think the best way to handle that (knowing it is being very publicly reported too) is to stick their fingers in their ears and go "LA LA LA LA LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU, LA LA LA LA LA"
Even Apple realises it has to make an attempt to quell people's fears - eventually.
I've had to replace the LCD screen on one 6310i after the phone fell out of my pocket while I was cycling. LCD screen shattered, but rest of the mob was fine. :/ I used this info at http://www.formymobile.co.uk/6310disassembly.php#.VEYTL_mSzGA and judging from the screen shots, it appears you can replace the battery too. (It was a few years ago I repaired mine, so I don't remember exactly what it looks like inside, thus the internet memory.)
I have two 6310i phones and they still work fine. I have one on PAYG in the glove compartment of my car for use in emergencies, the main battery lasts for months if it's turned off. I'd have thought that the PCB battery was just to save your settings and content so you could still use it as long as you kept the main battery topped up and the phone turned on? If you did that, you'd need to charge it every week or so, depending on use?
".....No, the reflexive response of Matt is to miss the irony..." Wow, Marsbarbrain's backpedalling has become so reflexive he now automatically does it even for others! Or maybe he just missed the bit where people have been mocking the tinfoil-attired for months over their conspiracy theories claiming this or that social media tool/site "is a CIA front!"
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Actually, Matt, it does seem to be a con job, just trying to traffic information wherever they can, including DoD, the Guardian, and Buzzfeed, one wonders who else they might be 'sharing' with?
... and CIA connection is a pretty stupid, though mildly amusing, suggestion.
However, I would not be surprised if they had an Israeli connection, including to secret services, though if they do, we'll never hear about that.
Apologies for my earlier hasty comment.
I imagine they're experiencing something of a Phorm moment; you let the the heady glow of apparent success go to your head and boldly flash a bit more than you know is discreet to impress a potential suitor. You dismiss the NDA because its all going so swimmingly and you don't want to upset the applecart and bang - you wake up with a serious hangover and discover that not only does the rest of the world not drink the same from the Kool Aid, but they're far less stupid than you could have possibly imagined from the safety of your insular environment.
That they bother persevering with the farce is just embarassing.
I'd like to ask a question: why is Whisper being singled out for these clauses in their terms of service? Google tracks you even closer when using Maps, for example - exact location down to a few meters, attached to your IP and IMEI. Never you mind what the other "social networking" apps get from you, from Faceplant I mean Facebook to Twitter to Instagram to Foursquare, and beyond.
I know I'm going to get downvoted for this, but Whisper is no more guilty than the rest of the social networking, sell-your-soul-for-a-profit-so-we-can-get-our-IPO scum, so when does the entire social networking app industry get called out for flagrantly ignoring and sharing your privacy for the sake of profit?
Modern society reminds me of Rise of the Cybermen: too stupid to question, too easy to cajole.
Because Whisper pushes itself as a privacy app. Duh.
You won't hear people complaining that Whisper's search function is crappy (Is it? Does it even have one? I have no idea. It's just an example.) But if Google suddenly stopped being able to find relevant content it would be a pretty big deal.
"...too stupid to question..."
No. It was questioned, by the Guardian, and found sorely wanting. That's the way it works; we can't know it all, so we hope to rely on others in whom we have some trust to dig up the dirt on things beyond our own expertise, and in turn some of us do that for others where we are the experts.
Or do you imagine that back in the good old days, when the Wright brothers achieved powered flight, that everyone else was an expert on aerodynamics with an informed critique at the ready?
On "too easy to cajole" though, I wouldn't entirely disagree, although in this case the cajoling was done before the Guardians story.
Google tracks you even closer when using Maps, for example
What makes you think I ever allowed any Google service, maps included, access to location, with any degree of accuracy? You're not supposed to need that if you're only looking at the map, but I'm using a different - get this, an offline one - map app anyway that has the side advantage of actually being freely correctable if it happens to be wrong... Now, Google may or may not go behind my back and track me without consent anyway, but I'm certainly not going to make it easy for them.
> I'm using a different - get this, an offline one - map app anyway that has the side advantage of actually being freely correctable if it happens to be wrong
On a phone? Would that happen to be OsmAnd then? Best portable device mapping application I have ever seen, including SatNavs and the like. And it can download and use OSM data offline--a plugin even allows you to do some basic editing on OSM directly from your phone.
Best thing is that it's FOSS and available from F-Droid and alternative "markets", which is useful for those like me, who do not have nor want a Goorgle account.
I will give you a posivote, but the difference is simple, Google managers and staff are massive hypocrites, but they don't claim 'We are leaving you completely anonymous' while collecting and trying to sell data on users.
You can always switch geolocation, maps, and all of those things off.
I do, I much prefer a physical or graphical map.
Not that I support the Google approach, I suspect that I have an identity on Google+, don't like that, but I don't care too much that they serve me ads.
I know that I have a facebook identity thanks to a stupid arsehole who kept sending invitations, I didn't block his mail straight away, I know that facebook retains such data.
Finally blocked the idiot.
You are correct, but wrong about Whisper, their selling point was anonymity, but their valuation was based on a business plan involving geolocation data combined with comments made on their site, and the profit from selling that information.
Battery about to stop.
You are making the category error of confusing on-line acquaintances who happen to 'like' your posts once in a while or who you can drag into supporting you, with IRL people who are friends.
There are points of crossover, but they tend to be very shallow and short-lived connections.
Not only from my experience, from listening to and observing 'net connections, all very shallow, even in, for example, a case of suicide because of cancer.
Get the day or two of occasional pious statements, clear that nobody much gave a damn. People who knew the person IRL or through e-mail exchanges, did give a damn, of course, the latter is the lesser, but sure beats the heartless morons making pious noises for popularity in their electronic 'spaces'.
There's an experimental project for me, get back in touch with a former friend I met IRL, just as the then-friend's social network obsession was developing, so anyone not on Facebook was rapidly forgotten.
I will try it by the end of this year.
I guess that, if one hates Facebook for example, people who have been gathered by chat on the site (the former friend now bases his social life on that) aren't much going to like the lone skeptic.
Which is just so absurd, why should that stupid site be essential?
Any can use e-mail or the telephone, the post.
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