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Samsung embeds IronSource spyware app on phones across WANA

(smex.org)
845 points the-anarchist | 1 comments | 21 Jun 25 03:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.212s | source
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boramalper ◴[21 Jun 25 03:56 UTC] No.44334361[source]▶
I suspect a strong link between mass surveillance (by corporations for advertising or by states for intelligence purposes) and the very recent targeting of the senior Iranian nuclear scientist and military officers at their homes in Iran.

Wherever you are from or whatever side of the conflict you are on, I think we can all agree that it’s never been easier to infer so much about a person from “semi-public” sources such as companies selling customer data and built-in apps that spy on their users and call home. It allows intelligence agencies to outsource intelligence gathering to the market, which is probably cheaper and a lot more convenient than traditional methods.

“Privacy is a human right” landed on deaf ears but hopefully politicians will soon realise that it’s a matter of national security too.

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FilosofumRex ◴[21 Jun 25 05:09 UTC] No.44334697[source]▶
Almost all of Iran's cell network system was originally installed by S. Korean firms. They've changed some to Chinese brands, but apparently the compromised S. Korean brands are still around.
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Digital28 ◴[21 Jun 25 06:08 UTC] No.44334967[source]▶
Changing from SK to CN is a trade from intentional vulnerability to unintentional vulnerability. I’ve yet to see a secure piece of software come out of China in my 30+ years of coding.
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monster_truck ◴[21 Jun 25 13:10 UTC] No.44337336[source]▶
Brother you cannot be serious with this racist take
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bbarnett ◴[21 Jun 25 13:52 UTC] No.44337626[source]▶
Saying that a culture is poor at security dev, such as Chinese business culture, is not even remotely rasist.

There are many ethnicities in China, people of all genetic backgrounds. It is the culture that is the problem, not the race.

For example, there are many ethnically Chinese people who grew up in the West, working in businesses, in countries where there is a culture of security.

Now, you could label it 'culturalist', and maybe it is, but there are definitely inferior and superior cultures. Especially, there are parts of cultures which are quite comparable this way.

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1. AJ007 ◴[21 Jun 25 15:23 UTC] No.44338256[source]▶
There's also another point that security is really fucking expensive. Apple on Google spend billions a year on security, yet their phones are broken in to once they are a couple of years old. Big American software companies have large margins and large budgets. Those Chinese companies are running on fumes (and credit.)

Security and encryption is taken as a given by Western regulators given how many times they pass laws to break encryption. If you look at targeted 0-days, the conclusion would be more along the lines of the very best hardware+software is barely secure.