Did you know that your Smartphone may be doing things you don't know it's doing. A new report just released from the Electronic Privacy Information Center states that your smart phone may also be doing things you didn't give it permission to do.
With the increase in Smartphone users since the last election in 2008 there has been an equally increase in the number of folks who use their phone for just about everything. Smartphones are capable of managing massive amounts of storage & have surpreme processing capacity. They can access the Web, send and receive email, take and send photos, play games, download music, watch television, provide two-way live video, and access calendars, address books, and other personal activities within the Internet. They are also becoming even “smarter” with their ability to access multiple radio and network sensors that enhance a person's ability to network with other technologies in their environment such as: home appliances, entertainment systems, desktop and laptop computers, and even vehicles.
When technology like this improves to the degree that it has there is an increase in concern for the privacy of the individual that is using it. The apps that we are downloading to make our lives easier may be doing things behind the scenes that we didn't give it permission to do.
Smartphones:
• Contain personally identifiable information (PII), including name, address, credit card numbers, banking info, usernames/passwords;
• Contain contacts and social relationship data of the user, such as name/address/phone/relationship information of friends, family, and business acquaintances;
• Are within arm’s reach of their owners 24 hours a day;
• Offer applications that can learn from and adapt to users;
• Support applications that monitor the location of users in public spaces;
• Track online activity;
• Host cookies or other computing code that record user engagement with smartphone devices.
At the same time, however, this election will also create numerous security and privacy risks for smartphone users.
These risks include:
• Political or election-centered smartphone apps with misleading, overly complex or inadequate privacy settings;
• “Phishing” attacks promulgated via fake political apps or other digital communications that appear to come from a legitimate campaign;
• Spyware that invades smartphones via political or election apps, either in the app itself, in-app ads (free apps often use these) or on websites or via email;
• Network “spoofing” attacks that take smartphone users to a fake campaign website;
• Location-based surveillance of key campaign staff or officials; campaign volunteers, candidates or their significant others as well as voters;
• Programs that capture keystrokes or log emails or SMS text messages and can capture passwords;
Auto-dial donation sites that use smartphone auto-dialing features to send funds without user permission or knowledge;
• Malware designed to capture campaign credit-card numbers or online banking credentials;
• Smartphone-generated network attacks that overload network capacity during crucial periods of the election season.
So what can you do to safeguard yourself. The Electronic Privacy Information Center states:
• Learn the rules for voting in your state today by visiting 866ourvote.org;
• Do not use an employer provided cell or smartphone for personal purposes—especially campaign related communications. Employers should not allow the sharing of employee cell or smartphone contact information to political entities (e.g. campaigns, parties or ballot initiatives). This might constitute a campaign contribution that must be reported to the FEC;
• Set smartphone locking features;
• Check the reputation of any app before installing. Download or use apps only from trusted campaign, election administration, election protection sites, or App stores or App Markets. Do not download apps from third-party web sites, as they are a common source of malware;
• Do not click through installation of apps. Read each decision you are asked to make—some of them may be seeking access to other data hosted on the phone;
• Check the settings and selections for all existing apps on your smartphone;
• Reset and wipe the memory of all smartphones you may be recycling to remove personal information or stored content;
• Maintain good “hygiene” against botnets by ensuring that you have all of the most recent patches and updates for operating system software. Run computer security software to check computers for viruses, worms, Trojans, or active botnet activity. If you have broadband access and are not using your personal computer on Election Day, turn it off. Remember that botnets are not limited to the United States, but can be global. However, botnets cannot use a computer that is turned off.
• Be aware of the conditions for making text contributions to campaigns. Guidelines should be available on campaign websites, read them carefully.
• Links found in emails can be deceptive because of the similarity of certain Latin and Cyrillic letters.
Remember, these things cannot happen on Election Day if you turn off your phone! The concern for this happening on election day or as we draw nearer to that day is going to increase. Please be aware of all the things your doing with your phone and get rid of the aps you don't use, it will free up space on your phone for a good reputable app that you will use.
Be safe during this election period and get out and VOTE!!!
References:
Front Porch Politics. (8/25/2012). Is your smartphone donating to Obama’s campaign?. In Front Porch Politics. Retrieved 8/25/2012, from
http://frontporchpolitics.com/2012/08/is-your-smartphone-donating-to-obamas-campaign/.
Lillie Coney,* C. Aaron Cois,* and Beth Rosenberg*. (). Smartphones and Election 2012. In EPIC.org-Electronic Privacy Information Center. Retrieved 8/25/2012, from http://epic.org/privacy/voting/Smartphones-and-Election-2012.pdf.
Vickie
http://grandmamakingmoneyfromhome.ws
Ailene Mariz Lander is 15 years old. She was abducted on September 17th, 2012. This was 6 days ago. Please help bring her home. 
