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Samsung embeds IronSource spyware app on phones across WANA

(smex.org)
845 points the-anarchist | 2 comments | 21 Jun 25 03:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.47s | 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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mike_d ◴[21 Jun 25 05:29 UTC] No.44334773[source]▶
> I suspect a strong link between mass surveillance [...] and the very recent targeting of the senior Iranian nuclear scientist and military officers at their homes in Iran.

We all like to imagine this super cool clandestine hacking operation using peoples mobile phones to secretly track people who visit nuclear facilities back to their homes.

The much more logical explanation is someone approached a low level employee at the MEAF who turned over a USB stick with the governments org charts and payroll records in exchange for their kids getting a full ride to a prestigious foreign university.

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michaelt ◴[21 Jun 25 14:08 UTC] No.44337730[source]▶
> The much more logical explanation is someone approached a low level employee at the MEAF who turned over a USB stick with the governments org charts and payroll records in exchange for their kids getting a full ride to a prestigious foreign university.

If there are spies in foreign countries going around offering life-changing sums of money for USB sticks, which people are accepting

is it not also plausible that folks at google/samsung/apple/aws/cloudflare/microsoft are getting offered life-changing sums of money for leaving their work-from-home laptop unattended for 5 minutes?

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heavyset_go ◴[21 Jun 25 14:34 UTC] No.44337911[source]▶
Yes, this happens. Industrial espionage is popular.

From what I've seen with bribes, it doesn't even take life-changing amounts of money.

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1. bawolff ◴[21 Jun 25 18:40 UTC] No.44339748[source]▶
I imagine in a country like Iran where there is a sizable minority that hates the regime, someone might have done it for free.
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2. chrz ◴[22 Jun 25 22:14 UTC] No.44350750[source]▶
Imagine all countries