[NEWS] Palm Pre Reports Your Location and Usage To Palm

[D/\SH]

From Slashdot:

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/12/1616243/Palm-Pre-Reports-Your-Location-and-Usage-To-Palm?art_pos=4

(Original source:

http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/entry/Palm_Pre_privacy/

"It turns out the Pre periodically uploads detailed information about the user to Palm, including the names of installed apps, application usage (and crashes), as well as GPS coordinates. This, of course, is without user consent or control. The only way he found to disable the uploads was to modify system files."

I've been taking a closer look at the WebOS side of my Palm Pre tonight, and I noticed that it periodically uploads information to Palm, Inc.

The first thing sent is intended to be my GPS location. It's the same location I get if I open the map app on the Pre. Not very accurate in this case, but I've seen it be accurate enough to find my house before.

{ "errorCode": 0, "timestamp": 1249855555954.000000, "latitude": 36.594108, "longitude": -82.183260, "horizAccuracy": 2523, "heading": 0, "velocity": 0, "altitude": 0, "vertAccuracy": 0 }

Here they can tell every WebOS app I use, and for how long.

{ "appid": "com.palm.app.phone", "event": "close", "timestamp": 1250006362 }
{ "appid": "com.palm.app.messaging", "event": "launch", "timestamp": 1250006422 }
{ "appid": "com.palm.app.messaging", "event": "close", "timestamp": 1250006446 }

It sends the above info on a daily basis.

2009-08-10t0910z upload /var/context/pending/1249895710-contextfile.gz.contextlog ok rdx-30681971
2009-08-11t0910z upload /var/context/pending/1249982110-contextfile.gz.contextlog ok rdx-31306808

There is also some info that is recorded when a WebOS app crashes. Now, I've seen WebOS crash hard a time or two, but it turns out apps are crashing fairly frequently behind the scenes, and each such crash is logged and a system state snapshot taken. At least some of these are uploaded, though if things are crashing a whole lot it will be throttled.

2009-08-09T1722Z upload /var/log/rdxd/pending/rdxd_log_59.tgz OK RDX-30246857
2009-08-09T1736Z upload /var/log/rdxd/pending/rdxd_log_26.tgz OK RDX-30249465
2009-08-09T1711Z upload /var/log/rdxd/pending/rdxd_log_56.tgz OK RDX-30252374
2009-08-09T1746Z upload /var/log/rdxd/pending/rdxd_log_70.tgz OK RDX-30253958
2009-08-09T1729Z upload /var/log/rdxd/pending/rdxd_log_67.tgz ERR_UPLOAD_THROTTLED_DAILY
2009-08-09T1728Z upload /var/log/rdxd/pending/rdxd_log_51.tgz ERR_UPLOAD_THROTTLED_DAILY
2009-08-09T1740Z upload /var/log/rdxd/pending/rdxd_log_21.tgz ERR_UPLOAD_THROTTLED_DAILY

Each tarball contains a kernel dmesg, syslog, a manifest.txt listing all installed ipkg packages (including third-party apps), a backtrace of the crash, a df (from which they can tell I'm using Debian on the phone), and ps -f output listing all processes owned by root (but not by joey).

The uploading is handled by uploadd, which reads /etc/uploadd.conf:

[SERVER=rdx]
RepositoryURL=https:///palmcsext/prefRequest?prefkey=APPLICATIONS,RDX_SRV
UploadURL=https:///palmcsext/RDFileReceiver

[SERVER=context]
RepositoryURL=https:///palmcsext/prefRequest?prefkey=APPLICATIONS,RDX_SRV
UploadURL=https:////palmcsext/RDFileReceiver

The "HOST" this is sent to via https is ps.palmws.com.

My approach to disable this, which may not stick across WebOS upgrades, was to comment out the 'exec' line in /etc/event.d/uploadd and reboot. However, then I noticed a contextupload process running. This is started by dbus, so the best way to disable it seems to be: rm /usr/bin/contextupload

BTW, since Palm has lawyers, they have a privacy policy, which covers their *** fairly well regarding all this, without going into details or making clear that the above data is being uploaded.


This is a HUGE invasion of privacy. Wow... just wow.

original thread can be found here:

http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=79094

[Metalmayhem]

Re: Palm Pre Reports Your Location and Usage To Palm

Update: Palm has issued a statement on the situation, basically confirming what we suspected -- it's collecting information to offer "a great user experience," which we take to mean that it's trying to squash bugs and keep location-centric apps functional, among other things. They've also mentioned that it's possible to turn data collecting services off without going into details -- ostensibly they're referring to the checkbox at setup (see above) that lets you stop sending aggregated location results to Google.

Update: We have a 2nd statement form Palm on the issue to further calm the waters:

"Palm takes privacy very seriously, and offers users ways to turn data collecting services on and off. Our privacy policy is like many policies in the industry and includes very detailed language about potential scenarios in which we might use a customer's information, all toward a goal of offering a great user experience. For instance, when location based services are used, we collect their information to give them relevant local results in Google Maps. We appreciate the trust that users give us with their information, and have no intention to violate that trust."

...........................

[tlpalmer01]

Re: Palm Pre Reports Your Location and Usage To Palm

dam its almost like big brother........

[D/\SH]

Re: Palm Pre Reports Your Location and Usage To Palm

dam its almost like big brother........

it is the government ill tell you what, they have laways been on our asses and always will.... i still feel that they are holding out on a h2o powered car that gets 200 miles to the gallon........ i know they are and they watch us, listen to us, follow us every waking second of every day hahahaha

[VenumX]

Re: Palm Pre Reports Your Location and Usage To Palm

it is the government ill tell you what, they have laways been on our asses and always will.... i still feel that they are holding out on a h2o powered car that gets 200 miles to the gallon........ i know they are and they watch us, listen to us, follow us every waking second of every day hahahaha

thing is if there was someone watching me all the time...i wouldnt really care...in fact, i'de probably sing more in the shower and do more sexy dances alone in my room...

[wgomez001]

Re: Palm Pre Reports Your Location and Usage To Palm

hahaha, man idk this is kinda whack, although expected. I mean, every damn phone has gps almost and we need it to use certain features on our devices etc, but THIS is the flip side of that. I dont have anything to hide...THANK GOD... so it's not a huge deal to me, but it's the principle that kinda urks me. I mean, how would they like it... maybe we should put together some spj lawyers and inspect palm or whoever and give them some stupid reason like...oh, it's so we can make for a better living experience, or how about BECAUSE WE FEEL LIKE IT , idk, WE BORED, lol... Oh... we could say it's to make a better smartphonejunkie experience!!!!

[D/\SH]

Re: Palm Pre Reports Your Location and Usage To Palm

thing is if there was someone watching me all the time...i wouldnt really care...in fact, i'de probably sing more in the shower and do more sexy dances alone in my room...

hahahahha well they did see something between us the other night.... maby they were watching than too :)