http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_17911919?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www. mercurynews.com <http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_17911919?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www .mercurynews.com&nclick_check=1> &nclick_check=1
Smartphones like Apple's iPhone hold treasure trove of data on users' lives <mailto:p...@mercurynews.com?subject=San%20Jose%20Mercury%20News:%20Smartpho nes%20like%20Apple's%20iPhone%20hold%20treasure%20trove%20of%20data%20on%20u sers'%20lives> <mailto:p...@mercurynews.com?subject=San%20Jose%20Mercury%20News:%20Smartpho nes%20like%20Apple's%20iPhone%20hold%20treasure%20trove%20of%20data%20on%20u sers'%20lives> By Patrick May and Troy Wolverton <mailto:p...@mercurynews.com?subject=San%20Jose%20Mercury%20News:%20Smartpho nes%20like%20Apple's%20iPhone%20hold%20treasure%20trove%20of%20data%20on%20u sers'%20lives> Mercury News Posted: 04/22/2011 07:27:04 PM PDT Updated: 04/23/2011 05:09:48 PM PDT Related Stories . Apr 25: . Lawsuit accuses Apple of tracking iPad, iPhone user location <http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_17927388?source=pkg> . Apr 21: . Investigators use iPhones to track owners' movements <http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_17903104?source=pkg> . Apr 20: . iSpy: Apple's iPhones can track users' movements <http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_17893676?source=pkg> In the sexy but increasingly scary world of smartphone forensics, insiders have a name for all the personal information purposely or unknowingly stored inside that iPhone or Android or Blackberry in your pocket. They call it your "digital fingerprints." With the right tools and physical access to your smartphone, anyone can tap into the private details of your life: texts, photos, tweets, Facebook ramblings, doctor's appointments, favorite hiking trails, and maybe even what you had for dinner last night at that little French bistro on the corner. "You can find out everything about someone from their smartphone," said Amber Schroader, owner of Paraben of Pleasant Grove, Utah, which makes forensic software for investigators and the general public. "You can see their YouTube videos, the websites they've surfed, their pictures. People are addicted to their cell phones, so this is the freshest and most valuable information available about someone." Although wireless companies and others have long been able to track the locations of phones remotely, it's unclear what other information they may be able to access remotely. But forensics investigators have long known that a treasure trove of biographical data can be gleaned when they have physical access to handheld devices. Even before researchers this week disclosed that the location-tracking file had been found on the iPhone, investigators had been collecting data from the Apple _____ Advertisement Quantcasthttp://trgca.opt.fimserve.com/fp.gif?pixelid=287-036699&diresu=154d c173454a7b21242c380d <http://click.pulse360.com/cgi-bin/clickthrough.cgi?db=context&position=7001 &tid=bhnjbgnkblnibjnlbonlzf&eid=1&id=92973868&creative=1087096&query=news%3A premium%20image%20image&clickid=92794324&tz=US&UNQ=0000013045235852621615800 0000106051057&value=36LOCFNVWY6HA&origvalue=36LOCFNVWY6HA&cgroup=californian ews_ros_300x250> http://static.pulse360.com/blob/94/6e7b1bd8_pmort10_3.jpgVirginia Owe Less Than $729K? The government may pay you up to $5000 to make your mortgage. <http://click.pulse360.com/cgi-bin/clickthrough.cgi?db=context&position=7002 &tid=bhnjbgnkblnibjnlbonlzg&eid=1&id=93047898&creative=1087605&query=news%3A premium%20image%20image&clickid=92794324&tz=US&UNQ=0000013045235852621615800 0000106051057&value=36LOCFNVWY6HA&origvalue=36LOCFNVWY6HA&cgroup=californian ews_ros_300x250> http://static.pulse360.com/blob/cf/6e201bce_social_security_card.jpgNew Policy in VirginiaDrivers with no DUIs may be eligible for $30 per month car. _____ smartphone. "We've been analyzing iPhones since they came out," said Christopher Vance, a digital forensics specialist at Marshall University's Forensics Science Center, which works with state and local law enforcement agencies in West Virginia. Data that Vance and his lab have helped harvest from iPhones include call logs, map search results from the device's Google Maps app, graphics stored in the browsers' cache, even logs of what's been typed into the iPhone's virtual keyboard. "There's tons of great information on the iPhone," he said. 'Spy phones' Not everyone's thrilled about how easy it is to get a smartphone to cough up its secrets. Apple has ignored repeated requests for comment on the tracking file, even as members of Congress have started asking questions of Apple about why it's tracking its phone users and what it's doing with the information. And privacy advocates warn that harvesting data from anyone's phone without their permission is another step down an already troubling path. "These aren't smartphones -- they are spy phones," said John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog's Privacy Project. "Consumers must have the right to control whether their data is gathered and how it is used. "People don't realize the absolute gold mine of data about their life that exists inside their smartphone," he added. "There really needs to be an educational process started so that people will begin to understand that." Privacy advocates say the disclosure of the iPhone tracking file highlights the need for new laws and regulations to govern the type and amount of information that mobile devices can collect. In addition to the iPhone tracking file, it has been revealed that Apple's iPhones and Google's Android phones regularly transmit location data back to those two companies. "I see a slippery slope," said Sharon Goott Nissim, consumer privacy counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a consumer advocacy group. "Once the collection of data has been done already, it's harder to stop law enforcement from getting access to it. The way to stop this is to stop the collection in the first place." 'Under the radar' For years now, investigators have had a much better idea than the phones' owners of what data they can legally harvest from consumers' phones. The iPhone's location-tracking file "has been flying under the radar for a while," said Sean Morrissey, CEO of Katana Forensics. "For forensics (investigators), that's a good thing. You don't want to tell the bad guy" that you can get this off their phone. "We know most of data is going to go mobile," he said. Forensics investigators have long been able to pull lists of contacts, call records and text messages from cellphones. But smartphones such as the iPhone have greatly increased the amount of data at their disposal. Part of that has to do with consumers' growing use of such devices and the growing number of applications available for them. Schroader, whose firm offers a forensic mining tool for $199 called iRecovery, said while investigators have been able to explore the innards of cellphones for years, the growth in smartphone capacity has meant a sea change in the amount of personal data now easily retrievable. "We've made these tools that support iPhone and Windows Mobile and Android for years, but it's the storage that's changed everything," she said. "Your old-school phone had a couple of megabytes of storage. Now we're at gigabytes, and eventually we'll be at terabytes. And when we're working with law enforcement, that translates into a lot more evidence, which makes us all very happy." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, discuss-os...@yahoogroups.com. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor biso...@intellnet.org http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: osint-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Unsubscribe: osint-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: osint-dig...@yahoogroups.com osint-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: osint-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
