John Bambenek | Saturday, 10 November 2007
My big brother, my cell phone
Sick of spam in your in-box? How will you cope with spam on your cell phone?
After a long period of rumour and speculation, Google
has announced its plans to enter the cell phone industry. It will partner with 33 cell phone manufacturers to make "Android", a Google-based cell phone operating system. The alliance of cell phone companies,
The Open Handset Alliance, will work together to develop "open source" cell phone software to improve the way cell phones can get on the internet and increase what a cell phone can accomplish online.
This announcement follows an earlier report that Google was demostrating a prototype of a cell phone that would bundle Google services with advertisements for a low or no-cost cell phone. While Google has said it has no immediate plans to get into the hardware end of cell phones, it hasn't ruled out such a move. This has fueled rumours of a "gPhone" supported by advertisements.
Such speculation has brought with it privacy concerns. Google does extensive data mining on its users to target advertisements at them. When it acquired DoubleClick, it became one of the largest repositories of consumer marketing information on the planet. Google has prided itself and made its bread and butter by targetting advertisements effectively to consumers. It is first and foremost a marketing company.
With the entrance of Google into the cell phone market, this is likely to continue. There are already attempts to offer cell phone service at reduced or no cost as long as a consumer is willing to put up with ads. Some of these services "listen" to your phone calls to determine what kind of products you are interested in. In Asia and Europe, cell phone providers are using the cell phone's location to determine which ads should be sent. Other companies, such as Vodafone, use Bluetooth to send advertisements to any phone within the relatively short range of a transmitter. What this adds up to is another avenue with which to advertise to consumers.
Privacy concerns
Cell phone companies already have a rudimentary way of tracking the locations of their users. With location-based advertising, they have an incentive to not only track their users, but to store such information. With a "Google phone", it is likely that a treasure trove of marketing information could be harvested from the device to offer services to consumers. According to the Open Handset Alliance website: "With Android, a developer could build an application that enables users to view the location of their friends and be alerted when they are in the vicinity giving them a chance to connect." Such a feature could easily be misused in the wrong hands.
If users can choose whether or not they want such a system, that would be fine. If, however, Android or something similar becomes the norm, consumers will be faced with dilemma: either they can have a cell phone that makes available information they'd rather keep private or they can give away their cell phone. What happens when cell phone companies realize there is good money to be made in trafficking of marketing information? Will they be able to quietly rewrite their cell phone contracts so consumers unwittingly give up their privacy?
Lastly, all cell phones shipped in the United States are required by law to come with a GPS that can be tracked by law enforcement (in the context of someone calling 911 and not being able to relay their location in an emergency). However, these can be opened up for general use. Cell phone manufacturers could easily set the GPS to be open and not allow (or make very difficult) users to turn it off. Consumers may not be keen on the idea of being forced to carry a tracking device.
Spam gone wild
Modern life has become increasingly saturated with advertisements. Television shows, even those on cable, are at least 30 per cent commercials (not including those paid infomercials at odd hours). Sports stadiums are named after companies and littered with billboards. Public transportation is making up funding shortfalls by selling advertising. Even bathroom stalls aren't immune from advertisements. If consumers sign up to be bothered by advertisements to get a free cell phone, that's their prerogative. It says something about a society when it tolerates data mining phones in exchange for a cheaper phone bill but sputters indignantly at the idea of the government data mining those same phones to combat terrorism.
When cell phones become targets for advertisements, spam will become an even greater problem. Email made it possible to communicate cheaply with people all over the globe. Legitimate commerce over email made transactions cheaper and passed those savings on to the consumer. However, spam threatens to make email unusable. Over 90 per cent of all email is unsolicited spam. The author of this article receives approximately 2,000 emails a day, but over 1,800 are junk (most of which are Viagra or associated products). Luckily, my software catches most of this junk so it doesn't have to be dealt with manually. However, cell phones lack the processing power and capabilities of a server and would quickly be deluged by spam. It is also important to note that Google's AdWords system (their advertisement service) is known to have a significant amount of fraud associated with it. Likely, "gPhones" will also be used in similar "click fraud" schemes.
Hacking concerns
Until now, there has been no real activity in cell phone "viruses" or hacking. The main reason for that cell phones are not being used for commerce. Basically, there is no money in hacking cell phones. But when there is, hackers will attack in battalions. Preventing identity theft using home computers is hard enough, but technology simply hasn't been adequately developed to deal with it on a cell phone. Organized criminal groups will be able simply mimic legitimate advertisements and trick consumers into running software to take over their phone to be used in criminal enterprises.
Like all developments in technology, cell phone advertising can open up new economic models, spur commerce, and increase the quality of life. It can also threaten individuals and corporations. As development moves forward with Android and similar services, hopefully these corporations will take the necessary steps to protect consumers. But considering the less-than-stellar job they've done in the PC world, I wouldn't count on it.
John
Bambenek is a freelance columnist and blogger at Part-Time
Pundit. He also writes for several other popular websites such as
BC Magazine and the
Internet Storm Center.
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Comments (14)
GM Roper said...Good points John. I might note also that the idea of the android phone is to make it cheaper without the customer realizing the price he pays in loss of privacy. This is not a good idea methinks, but it is probably going to be done anyway.
United States | Sunday, 11 November 2007 at 4:41 am
Rosemary Kite said...Oh, no......spare me the gory details.... NO MORE SPAM PLEASE, on the internet - or, God forbid, on our cell phones! As a severely challenged techie - just the idea of giving hackers a whole new venue for their highly developed technological savvy, and leaving me with all the dirty work of trying to figure out the fastest and cheapest way to get rid of the junk, is way too scary!
Radical consumerism wants us all to believe that the more we buy, the happier we will be. So, first those in favor of such “philosophies of life” will create a need where there was no need before. Then, they will happily invent a way for us to fill such useless needs. As if that were not already enough, they will “sell” the idea of such useless needs to advertisers who will happily try to increase our desire for such them. When we finally succomb by giving up the fight against spam (or other unsolicited ads) or by falling into the trap of paying cash for objects or services we don’t really need, or even going into debt for some stupidity, they will laugh all the way to the bank alright! And we will definitely be none the happier for it!
Even with all “privacy matters” aside, the billboard and paid advertisements on the buses and subways alone in New York City are enough of an assault on all of my senses to make me cringe at the very thought of Spam on Cell Phones. If I could earn a penny for every obscene, unsolicited, pornographic piece of spam I get in my inbox or my spambox or my junkmail box, I would be a very rich lady today!!!!! We should start a world-wide campaign called: STOP THE HAMS. STOP THE SPAM. TAKE BACK THE INTERNET! AND THE CELL PHONES TOO!
Rosemary Kite
United States | Sunday, 11 November 2007 at 7:44 am
Ogre said...You’re dead on with this article. I work with viruses and know where they’ve been—they haven’t been on cell phones, but they will be soon—and this will surely be their entrance point!
United States | Sunday, 11 November 2007 at 11:28 am
David Cartwright said...John, you said: “However, cell phones lack the processing power and capabilities of a server and would quickly be deluged by spam.”
However you have made the mistake of extrapolating an increasingly irrelevant PC model to the mobile phone. In fact, with Web 2.0 services such as Google’s Gmail, your analogy is also outdated with regard to current PC capabilities.
In the web 2.0 model, the spam filtering is not done on the client (e.g. PC or mobile handset) but by a vast cluster of servers. The spam never reaches the client machine.
I already access my Gmail account via my mobile, and virtually all spam has already been filtered by the Gmail spam services.
Sounds like it is time for you to grab a free Google Gmail account via http://www.gmail.com
Australia | Sunday, 11 November 2007 at 9:20 pm
John Bambenek said...David-
The problem is that most cell-phone based advertising uses SMS, not e-mail to a third-party service. SMS is direct-to-phone. They’d have to rearchitect to stop spam. They COULD use e-mail to a free service instead, but then they’d likely use the “real-time” notification that many advertisers would prefer. I check gmail from time to time on my phone too, I just don’t get instant notification of a message.
United States | Monday, 12 November 2007 at 12:17 pm
Guillaume said...It is excessive to say that emails are soon going to be unusable because of spams. I personally never encounter spam simply because I don’t give my main email address on websites, and the Gmail spam filter has a very efficient filter.
Spams will soon be an old story.
France | Tuesday, 13 November 2007 at 3:07 am
David Cartwright said...John,
In your article you did not mention SMS, but discussed email, spam and mobile phones in the same paragraph.
Each of these technologies have very different risks, and it is important that the average user be educated to understand the different risks between technologies such as SMS, email, Instant Messaging, social networks such as MySpace, viruses, malicious hacking, etc.
What is critical is that parents, educators, governments understand that the PC-centric computing world is fast fading and that within five years most Internet access will be via mobile devices such as Google’s Linux-based “Android” technology. Therefore it is encouraging to see MercatorNet providing articles about mobile technology. However, I caution that these should avoid sensationalism and focus on how we can learn from the mistakes of the PC-centric era.
I look forward to many more educational articles on the upcoming mobile Internet era.
Australia | Tuesday, 13 November 2007 at 8:40 am
Jim said...Thank you John Bambenek for such a thought provoking article. I’m not sure I welcome all the thoughts that came to mind and so my comment(s).
The technology that brought us e-mail is fantastic and it allows so much communication to occur that otherwise would be impossible or at the least laborious. Like you I get more spam than I care for mostly offering VIAGRA. Also, like yourself most of the spam is caught by a filter and I never see it. However, even the intended or somewhat intended e-mail distribution of being copied on copied distributions really does defeat the purpose and to a great degree becomes a wasting of one another’s time and resources. We end up in the misuse of a useful technology to the point where its usefulness is now in decline.
My first comment is with regard to privacy issues and your line “Will they [the cell phone companies] be able to quietly rewrite their cell phone contracts so consumers unwittingly give up their privacy?” This is without doubt to be expected in view of the current legal documentation from Insurance and Banking Enterprises. Customers now must actively opt out, in writing, of the processes that allow collection and use of private information. I find it appalling that rather than being asked for permission to use private information customers must inform companies to NOT collect and/or use customers’ private information.
Then there is this … “Like all developments in technology, cell phone advertising can open up new economic models, spur commerce, and increase the quality of life.” It’s the quality of life part that causes me concern. Then again you did include that small, but incredibly valuable word … “can”. In my opinion one of the major impacts will be another, perhaps unwelcome, addition to “life in the fast lane”. I for one will view the latest developments with a skeptical interest and most likely not hands on.
United States | Wednesday, 14 November 2007 at 4:05 pm
John Bambenek said...David-
I tried to strike a balance of going too deep technically but not being 50,000 feet either, which is why I didn’t go into specific technologies in much detail. My intent wasn’t to sensationalise but to note the risks so that they can be addressed (i.e. my last paragraph/call to action).
United States | Thursday, 15 November 2007 at 8:08 am
Phone Hater said...Just as in Windows - only idiots can be hacked (IMHO)
Austria | Thursday, 7 February 2008 at 4:32 am
Stefan said...I hope my cell phone will continue to be spam free and free from as much advertising as possible.
-- | Friday, 8 February 2008 at 3:29 am
Trace Cell Phone numbers said...so far my cell has been spam free - but i have heard it getting worst - more people with smart phones the worst it will get.
United States | Friday, 22 February 2008 at 7:46 am
Cell Phone Trace said...I also agree. I have had more and more SPAM on my cell..somewhere someone has posted my number..and now im getting msg’s all the time..how can i stop it?
United States | Tuesday, 4 March 2008 at 4:24 am
Buy mobile phone said...Many customer get back to me for fixing their cell phone because it got hijacked or spammed with 1k or more sms. Lucky that this doesn’t not covered by warranty. As I’m cell phone dealer I’m getting annoyed with all of these crap.
New Zealand | Saturday, 15 March 2008 at 10:04 pm
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