‘Brightest Flashlight’ App Shared Users’ Location, Device ID Without Consumers’ Knowledge

Android Flashlight app developer settles FTC charges it
deceived consumers.

From the Federal Trade Commission: The creator of one of the most popular apps for Android mobile devices has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the free app, which allows a device to be used as a flashlight, deceived consumers about how their geolocation information would be shared with advertising networks and other third parties.

Goldenshores Technologies, LLC, managed by Erik M. Geidl, is the company behind the “Brightest Flashlight Free” app, which has been downloaded tens of millions of times by users of the Android operating system. The FTC’s complaint alleges that the company’s privacy policy deceptively failed to disclose that the app transmitted users’ precise location and unique device identifier to third parties, including advertising networks. In addition, the complaint alleges that the company deceived consumers by presenting them with an option to not share their information, even though it was shared automatically rendering the option meaningless.

“When consumers are given a real, informed choice, they can decide for themselves whether the benefit of a service is worth the information they must share to use it,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “But this flashlight app left them in the dark about how their information was going to be used.”

 In its complaint, the FTC alleges that Goldenshores’ privacy policy told consumers that any information collected by the Brightest Flashlight app would be used by the company, and listed some categories of information that it might collect. The policy, however, did not mention that the information would also be sent to third parties, such as advertising networks.

Consumers also were presented with a false choice when they downloaded the app, according to the complaint. Upon first opening the app, they were shown the company’s End User License Agreement, which included information on data collection. At the bottom of the license agreement, consumers could click to “Accept” or “Refuse” the terms of the agreement. Even before a consumer had a chance to accept those terms, though, the application was already collecting and sending information to third parties – including location and the unique device identifier.

The settlement with the FTC prohibits the defendants from misrepresenting how consumers’ information is collected and shared and how much control consumers have over the way their information is used. The settlement also requires the defendants to provide a just-in-time disclosure that fully informs consumers when, how, and why their geolocation information is being collected, used and shared, and requires defendants to obtain consumers’ affirmative express consent before doing so.

The defendants also will be required to delete any personal information collected from consumers through the Brightest Flashlight app.

Foursquare 7.0 Brings Passive Location Technology to All

As reported by GigaOM: After months of running a beta to a handful of users, the newer, “smarter” Foursquare is now available to the masses. Foursquare 7.0, released today, will bring passive location push notifications to all of its users, recommending locations nearby, according to TechCrunch.

The new version of the app, available for iOS and Android, comes along with a sleek redesign and small performance boosts. According to the company, the new alerts are designed to create the right balance between performance and battery life, as recommendations are useless if they constantly drain the phone of power. Interestingly, Foursquare 7.0 does not use any background app features — notorious iPhone battery-killers that, in providing up-to-the-minute changes in information, ultimately end up draining the battery even when the app is not in use.

It’s clear that Foursquare is making an earnest effort to make unobtrusive, sustainable, and informative passive location alert technology, but that’s a tall order. A large portion of what makes passive alerts useless is that for many users, it’s just not feasible to expect a phone to constantly fetch GPS or location data. The sheer limitation on technology might be to Foursquare’s ultimate detriment, as it has plenty riding on this deal (including $41 million in debt financing), but executing a great passive location app could solve the service’s great problem: being essential to its users.

The NSA Is Gathering 5 Billion Records On Global Cellphone Locations Every Day

As reported by Business Insider:  The National Security Agency collects nearly 5 billion records on the locations of cellphones worldwide, including within the U.S., Barton Gellman and Ashkan Soltani of The Washington Post report.  

Much like the agency's PRISM program, the GPS program collects a substantial amount of Americans’ data “incidentally."

The Post, drawing on documents form Edward Snowden and interviews with intelligence officials, reports that NSA analysts "can find cellphones anywhere in the world, retrace their movements and expose hidden relationships among individuals using them."

The ability to retrace someone's movements provides an astonishing ability to map that person's entire life, as seen by the metadata published by German politician Malte Spitz.

One senior collection manager told The Post that the agency is “getting vast volumes” of location data from around the world by tapping into the cables that connect mobile networks globally.

U.S. officials insisted to the Post that the location data programs are lawful and only used for intelligence on foreign targets. The number of Americans whose locations are tracked is unclear Snowden documents alone, the Post notes, and senior intelligence officials declined to offer an estimate.

The NSA collects locations in bulk and then uses powerful analytic tools — known collectively as CO-TRAVELER — to "map cellphone owners’ relationships by correlating their patterns of movement over time with thousands or millions of other phone users who cross their paths," according to the Post.

The result is astonishing, since the agency can then track the metadata of a target while also seeing the general public and "co-travelers," or those who may be associates with the target.

The issue for privacy advocates and concerned citizens, ACLU technologist Chris Soghoian explained to the Post, is that “the only way to hide your location is to disconnect from our modern communication system and live in a cave.”

Furthermore, the Obama administration has argued in court that Americans have no Fourth Amendment right to privacy when it comes to GPS location data.

Stolen Truck in Mexico with Radioactive Material had Inactive GPS Locator

As reported by CBS News: A cargo truck hauling extremely dangerous radioactive material from used medical equipment was stolen from a gas station in central Mexico, and authorities sent out an alert in six central states and the capital to find it, Mexican officials said Wednesday.

The truck was carrying a metal container of cobalt-60 headed to a nuclear waste facility in the state of Mexico, said Juan Eibenschutz,  director general of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards.  Though the container is heavily sealed in lead, designed to be difficult to break and to survive accidents intact, he said it contains an amount of radioactive material that could do serious damage if opened.

Direct exposure would result in death within a few minutes, he added.

"This is a radioactive source that is very strong," Eibenschutz told The Associated Press on Wednesday, adding that it can be almost immediately fatal, depending on proximity. "The intensity is very big if it is broken."

Eibenschutz didn't know the exact weight, but that it was the largest amount stolen in recent memory, and the intensity of the material caused the alert. Local, state and federal authorities, including the military, are searching for the truck.

The material was used for obsolete radiation therapy equipment that is being replaced throughout Mexico's public health system. It was coming from the general hospital in the northern border city of Tijuana, Eibenshutz said.  The thieves most likely wanted the white 2007 Volkswagen cargo vehicle with a moveable platform and crane.

Eibenschutz said there is nothing so far to indicate that the theft of the material was intentional or in any way intended for an act of terrorism.

The thieves likely didn't know what the truck was carrying, he said, and may have discarded the metal container, which he said is about a meter square.

"If someone finds a big chunk of metal with radiation symbols all over it, they should notify us immediately and don't open it," Eibenschutz said.

The truck marked "Transportes Ortiz" left Tijuana on Nov. 28 and was headed to the storage facility when it stopped to rest at a gas station in Tepojaco, in Hidalgo state north of Mexico City, driver Valentin Escamilla Ortiz told authorities.

He said he was sleeping in the truck when two men armed with a gun approached about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. They made him get out, tied his hands and feet and left him in a vacant lot nearby.

When he was able to free himself, he ran back to the gas station to get help.

The truck has a GPS locator but it wasn't active at the time of the theft, Eibenschutz said.

Mexican customs officials are on alert, Eibenschutz said, to prevent the truck from crossing the border. He said the material could not be used to make a nuclear bomb, but could be used in a dirty bomb, a conventional explosive that disseminates radioactive material.

All of the U.S. ports of entry have radiation detectors in place, and trucks crossing the border are routinely screened for radiation.

There are an average of a half-dozen reported thefts of radioactive material in Mexico each year, Eibenschutz said, and none have proven to be intentional, meaning the thieves were not after the material. He said in all cases so far, they were after the containers or vehicles.

Such unintentional thefts are not uncommon, said an official familiar with cases reported by International Atomic Energy Agency member states, who was not authorized to comment on the case. In some cases, radioactive sources have ended up being sold as scrap, causing serious harm to people who unknowingly come into contact with it.

In a famous case in the 1970s of stolen radioactive material in Mexico, one thief died and the other was injured when they opened the container, he said. The container was junked and sold to a foundry, where it contaminated some of the steel reinforcement bar that was made there. Eibenschutz said all foundries in Mexico now have equipment to detect radioactive material.

Amazon Is Joining, Not Starting, The Drone-Delivery Revolution

As reported by TechCrunch: Jeff Bezos shocked Middle America during a CBS “60 Minutes” segment with Charlie Rose: 30-minute Amazon deliveries by drones. Whether it's a real product or genius PR stunt on the eve of the biggest online shopping day of the year, it doesn't matter. The idea of a sky full of drones just hit the mainstream.

Amazon isn't the first company to experiment delivery by drones. In fact, over the last year, several companies beat Amazon to the punch with very similar services testing carrying tacos, pizzas and packages by multi-rotor crafts.

Skycatch demonstrated its aptly-named Tacocopter at Disrupt SF 2013. It flew past attendees, delivering a warm taco feet from the panel of robotics experts.

But what about a pizza? A UK franchise of the U.S.-based Domino's demonstrated over the summer a drone carrying two pizzas, forcing career pizza delivery men and women to question the longevity of their profession.

China-based SF Express started limited live trials of package deliveries earlier this year. And SF Express' reveal wasn't helped along with a prominent news agency like in Amazon's case. Drones carrying packages were simply spotted in Dongguang, in southern China

As reported by Quartz at the time, local companies are not bound by rigid government regulations and restrictions in China. Forget the black hole that is the FCC, apparently Chinese businesses that want to use drones must be granted approval from the local civil aviation authorities first. There's a certain appeal to delivery drones in China. Heavily populated areas are fighting a losing battle against smog and traffic congestion. Drones could be part of the answer.

Amazon's program would offer 30 minute deliveries of small items - that would cover 86% of Amazon's orders, Bezos indicated during the 60 Minutes interview. In theory, this would completely eliminate the lack of instant gratification currently lacking from shopping online. In its place would be the fact that your order would be delivered by a drone. A drone! I would order a pack of pencils just to have them dropped on my front door by a robot. But this revolution will not happen anytime soon. At least not in the States.

Bezos is a marketing genius. Amazon Prime Air is unquestionably more marketing gimmick than service in the pipeline. Even Bezos cautioned on 60 Minutes that drone deliveries are still years out. The air regulations are not in place, and the drone technology still needs to mature.

Amazon is currently under fire for working and hiring practices. They are fighting a losing battle against making customers pay taxes in certain states. The Guardian discovered the retail behemoth skirted paying the UK's corporation tax despite £7 billion in local sales. And there's always talk about Amazon's lack of substantial revenues. But now the company has drones!

If any company in the U.S. could pull this off, it would be Amazon. The retailer has demonstrated its knack for modernization time and time again. Of course there is a list of potential issues including regulations, scaling, and people with Airsoft guns. Innovation will overcome obstacles. However, the slope here is rather slippery. If Amazon can do this, why can't Walmart? Will this solution to decongest roads simply result in congestion 30 meters above the ground?

Library books on demand. Inter-industrial complex deliveries. Even the delivery of a drone by a drone. The sky is the limit (sorry) for drone deliveries.

Sony Patents a New Form of 'Wearable' With Lasers and GPS

As reported by Mashable: A recent Sony patent shows plans for a wearable computing device in the form of — wait for it — a wig.

This "Smartwig" contains all the features you'd expect from a computerized toupee, including GPS, camera and a laser pointer system, all of which also help control your other gadgets. The patent states that the wig is built to connect wirelessly to a second computing device.

The wig would be controlled by the wearer's head movement. The tech, hidden beneath the hairpiece itself, would communicate to the wearer by targeted vibrations to specific parts of the head.

Sony insists in the patent that the wig offers several advantages when compared to wearable competitors one being "significantly increased user comfort" as well as more discretion than a smartwatch or Google Glass. In fact, the device isn't visible at all, but is instead hidden by the hairpiece.

Sony adds, “Wigs are useful to enhance a user’s appearance and change other’s impressions because different hairstyles give different impressions. Thus many people use wigs. Especially bald people that usually wear wigs in their daily life.”

We'll see if Sony can make the wig the go-to accessory for anything other than covering a bald spot. The patent, which was filed in May, was made public last Friday.

SpaceX Flight with SES-8 Satellite Makes It Safely Into Orbit

As reported by Thomas Grounds with additional information from NBC News: After several days of delays, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the SES-8 communications satellite into orbit today.

The launch was broadcast live over the Internet.  I've included several shots of the live broadcast.

Today's launch marked SpaceX's third attempt to launch the SES-8 spacecraft for satellite communications provider SES World Skies. SpaceX aborted the two earlier launch attempts last week, first on Monday and again on Thursday, because of technical glitches. [Mission Photos: SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launching Landmark Satellite Flight]

"All known rocket anomalies have been resolved," SpaceX officials wrote in a status update Monday.

SpaceX had much riding on a successful launch Tuesday. Sending the 6,918-pound (3,138 kilograms) SES-8 satellite into its intended orbit, which ranges from 183 miles (295 kilometers) above Earth at its nearest point and 49,709 miles (80,000 km) at its highest point, will mark the company's entry into the commercial satellite market. The SES-8 satellite is a hybrid Ku- and Ka-band spacecraft built to provide high-definition telecommunications services to customers across the South Asia and Pacific region.

"The entry of SpaceX into the commercial market is a game-changer," SES chief technology officer Martin Halliwell told reporters in a Nov. 24 teleconference before SpaceX's first launch attempt. "It's going to really shake the industry to its roots."

SpaceX has launched six Falcon 9 rocket missions since the booster's debut in 2010, but most of those were either test flights or missions for NASA to deliver cargo to the International Space Station using the company's unmanned Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract to fly 12 cargo missions to the space station for NASA. Two of those delivery flights have already been launched.

The two-stage upgraded Falcon 9 rocket, called the Falcon 9 V1.1, stands 224.4 feet (68.4 meters) tall and is designed to loft both satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. Its protective payload fairing is 17 feet (5.1 m) wide, large enough to fit a bus inside. The rocket made its first test flight on Sept. 29 to launch a space weather monitoring satellite for the Canadian Space Agency from SpaceX's pad at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.

That mission successfully tested several major upgrades to the Falcon 9 rocket, including more powerful Merlin 1D rocket engines (also made by SpaceX), a triple redundant avionics system and enhancements made as part of the company's reusable rocket program. Unlike early Falcon 9 rockets, which arranged their nine first-stage engines in a three-by-three block, the Merlin 1D engines on the upgraded booster are placed in a circular "Octaweb" pattern for better performance, SpaceX officials have said.

The only glitch on the September test flight was the failure of the Falcon 9's second stage to restart in orbit, a capability it must perform to make today's launch a success.

SpaceX founder and Chief Executive Officer  Elon Musk has said the glitch was traced the cause to a frozen igniter fluid line. The affected system has been shored up with additional insulation to prevent freezing on the SES-8 satellite launch, he added.

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of developing affordable and reliable rockets and spacecraft. SpaceX currently advertises standard Falcon 9 rocket launches for $56.7 million.