-
Is Your Palm Pre Spying on You?
Techtree News Staff, Aug 13, 2009 1756 hrs ISTIt sends your personal information to Palm everyday
Time for yet another "privacy policy" related story. The last time we heard of anything like this was a few months ago when Facebook had to "revert" to its original privacy clauses owing to hue and cry generated by changes to its privacy policy.
It's now the turn of Palm who is in the midst of a row that alleges that the company is tracking the usage of the device by its user. A Debian Developer Joey Hess figured out that his WebOS laden Palm Pre used to send "some data" to Palm on a daily basis. After a surgical analysis, he came to the conclusion that not only was his location and movement being tracked, but also are the kind of applications and programs installed on the phone. This also included "unauthorized" applications that have not been approved by Palm. So, what this basically means is that wherever you go, whatever you do, if you're Palm pre has a data connection, it IS sending this information to Palm. Everyday.
Palm, who might have envisioned this "controversy" at the time of the launch of the device, has categorically stated in its privacy policy that, oh well, read the privacy statement here.
It goes like this:
"Location Based Services. When you use location based services, we will collect, transmit, maintain, process, and use your location and usage data (including both real time geographic information and information that can be used to approximate location) in order to provide location based and related services, and to enhance your device experience."
So, if you haven't noticed it yet, being a Palm Pre user and agreeing to use it, you have "accepted" these terms already. Palm, on its part, has come up with a statement on the issue that says that the company takes the privacy of every user very seriously. We've heard this before Palm, but we believe you this time!
It's now the turn of Palm who is in the midst of a row that alleges that the company is tracking the usage of the device by its user. A Debian Developer Joey Hess figured out that his WebOS laden Palm Pre used to send "some data" to Palm on a daily basis. After a surgical analysis, he came to the conclusion that not only was his location and movement being tracked, but also are the kind of applications and programs installed on the phone. This also included "unauthorized" applications that have not been approved by Palm. So, what this basically means is that wherever you go, whatever you do, if you're Palm pre has a data connection, it IS sending this information to Palm. Everyday.
Palm, who might have envisioned this "controversy" at the time of the launch of the device, has categorically stated in its privacy policy that, oh well, read the privacy statement here.
It goes like this:
"Location Based Services. When you use location based services, we will collect, transmit, maintain, process, and use your location and usage data (including both real time geographic information and information that can be used to approximate location) in order to provide location based and related services, and to enhance your device experience."
So, if you haven't noticed it yet, being a Palm Pre user and agreeing to use it, you have "accepted" these terms already. Palm, on its part, has come up with a statement on the issue that says that the company takes the privacy of every user very seriously. We've heard this before Palm, but we believe you this time!
Related Links
Discussion Board
(1) Comments
Critical Thinke
,Dallas, on Aug 13, 2009 07:44 PM
Report abuse
Opinion Poll
- Which desktop web browser do you use?
-
Internet Explorer
Firefox
Chrome
Safari
Opera
Other (specify in comments)
Poll Results View Previous Polls