Cellphones the new “Open Source” Frontier
Something has always bothered me about cell phones. As they are become more and more complex, they have shifted from being mere communications devices to platforms for applications, but in my opinion we don’t have as much control over what applications are being run on our phones as we don on our PC. If I anted to could I wipe my cell phone, and boot it with an other operating system? In actuality I don’t know. (I don’t even own a cell phone. really) But I doubt it. Somebody correct me if I’m wrong. Here is a good reason why I think we need more control over our cellphones.
FBI using cell phone microphones to eavesdrop
In his memorandum opinion, Judge Kaplan described the roving bug as a “listening device” installed in the defendants’ cellular phones that functioned regardless of whether the phone was powered on. Many models of cellular phones, however, can have their microphones remotely activated via a download—even without the knowledge of the owners. That could be what happened with Ardito and Peluso’s cell phones. It is also possible that the FBI installed a bug directly on the phones. (emphasis mine)
This is not a post disparaging law enforcement. The article sited how this capability should be done. They go a court order to turn a cell phone in to a “roving bug”. But I can that if some intelligent yet unscrupulous hacker could sneak an app onto your cellphone to record your conversations, and send him the mp3. Remember phones are much more complicated now. Complexity is where hackers live. For all of our sakes and I think this has to be they net frontier in the open source movement. To have open source phones that we can use on any cell network. TO use open protocols so that they masses can examine, debug, and improve the protocols that the few engineers that dreamed this up will undoubtedly miss. I know you need to get buy fro the Cell carriers. They loose their “lock in” in such an environment. But if at least ONE forward think company emerges to embrace these methods, and provide free software to switch phones from other carriers to their own. And provide and open platform that developers can cheaply right apps for, and they can provide service and value on par with the major telecoms that might be disruptive enough to force other to do the same.
