from Gork@lemm.ee to technology@lemmy.world on 02 Jun 19:57
https://lemm.ee/post/65725160
A smartphone smuggled out of North Korea is offering a rare – and unsettling – glimpse into the extent of control Kim Jong Un’s regime exerts over its citizens, down to the very words they type. While the device appears outwardly similar to any modern smartphone, its software reveals a far more oppressive reality. The phone was featured in a BBC video, which showed it powering on with an animated North Korean flag waving across the screen. While the report did not specify the brand, the design and user interface closely resembled those of a Huawei or Honor device.
It’s unclear whether these companies officially sell phones in North Korea, but if they do, the devices are likely customized with state-approved software designed to restrict functionality and facilitate government surveillance.
One of the more revealing – and darkly amusing – features was the phone’s automatic censorship of words deemed problematic by the state. For instance, when users typed oppa, a South Korean term used to refer to an older brother or a boyfriend, the phone automatically replaced it with comrade. A warning would then appear, admonishing the user that oppa could only refer to an older sibling.
Typing “South Korea” would trigger another change. The phrase was automatically replaced with “puppet state,” reflecting the language used in official North Korean rhetoric.
Then came the more unsettling features. The phone silently captured a screenshot every five minutes, storing the images in a hidden folder that users couldn’t access. According to the BBC, authorities could later review these images to monitor the user’s activity.
The device was smuggled out of North Korea by Daily NK, a Seoul-based media outlet specializing in North Korean affairs. After examining the phone, the BBC confirmed that the censorship mechanisms were deeply embedded in its software. Experts say this technology is designed not only to control information but also to reinforce state messaging at the most personal level.
Smartphone usage has grown in North Korea in recent years, but access remains tightly controlled. Devices cannot connect to the global internet and are subject to intense government surveillance.
The regime has reportedly intensified efforts to eliminate South Korean cultural influence, which it views as subversive. So-called “youth crackdown squads” have been deployed to enforce these rules, frequently stopping young people on the streets to inspect their phones and review text messages for banned language.
Some North Korean escapees have shared that exposure to South Korean dramas or foreign radio broadcasts played a key role in their decision to flee the country. Despite the risks, outside media continues to be smuggled in – often via USB sticks and memory cards hidden in food shipments. Much of this effort is supported by foreign organizations.
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Don’t get any ideas, GOP!
Too late!
When did Snowden whistleblow? This isn‘t exactly new tech.
2013.
The GOP is just The Soviet’s 2.0, so too late
Except we don’t get free healthcare or government housing or guaranteed employment or-
Shhh don’t tell them that American Corporations have been doing that for years.
newatlas.com/…/smartphone-listening-conversations…
I was going to say “that article mostly just seems to debunk the ‘my phone is always listening to me’ conspiracy theory” but then I got to the part about over 50% of analyzed Android apps having permission to take screenshots :/
this is a weird paragraph. no permission is needed for an app to take screenshots of itself. all apps can do that.
just an example: the Element matrix client has a bugreport feature that allows you to submit an automatically created screenshot of the previous menu.
it seems there are several ways to accomplish this: stackoverflow.com/…/how-to-programmatically-take-…
Do those code snippets on the Stackoverflow post allow you to capture the entire screen regardless of which app is open, or do they only allow you to capture the app the code is running in?
Capturing the app itself makes sense (for things like bug reports) but does Android really let any app capture whatever is on the screen?
no, they only allow the app to capture its own screen content. to make a regular screenshot of the whole display, the app needs a permission that the user has to approve every single time, at least on most phones. that API is actually for continuous screen recording, but of course usable for this purpose too. this also means that after getting approved by the user, the app can keep its recording sessions to keep more screenshots, but that ends when the app gets killed by android. I think the system also shows a notification when an app is recording, but as anything that too could vary with phones.
Smart-tvs are in the same boat
en.wikipedia.org/…/Automatic_content_recognition#…
pcmag.com/…/own-a-vizio-tv-it-may-have-spied-on-y…
This is why my TV is on a separate VLAN (with no internet access) and I use an Nvidia Shield for streaming. I haven’t seen any indication that the Shield does anything like this.
Yeah, there is no reason for me to be connecting my TV to the internet. I use a HTPC which is much better for streaming than the TV’s built-in apps.
The one time I do connect the TV to the internet is when there’s a firmware update that fixes an issue I’m encountering. That’s rare though.
I still have it on my network so I can control it using Home Assistant (eg have a backlight come on and dim the main lights when the TV is turned on) but it’s on an isolated VLAN.
The main difference being the consequences that might result from the surveillance.
Sounds like windows recall…
Better than recall. No need for special hardware like an NPU, nor does it keep asking you to sign in.
/s
An NPU isn’t required for something like recall, it just makes running local models more efficient.
Although I dislike recall as much as anyone else, this is quite a bit worse.
From the article:
Recall stores an image every few seconds. 5 minutes is indeed much worse. Think of all the content they’re missing!
How? If authorities seize your computer, don’t you think the recall screenshots is the first they will look at?
For sure. But at least those images aren’t kept in a secret location where users can’t see or delete them. Even if Recall makes this harder, there’s a meaningful difference here.
That said, neither one is doing you any privacy favors…
Has everyone forgotten about the NSA and their absurdly massive data centers? At least a portion of the US population likely has substantial data from their tech in a database we can’t access.
Sure, but at least from a technical POV those screenshots are accessible to the users, can be deleted/manipulated and the user is not forced to have the feature enabled
I don’t see how this is worse.
I’ve explained my point here
I’m really tired of people saying “both sides are the same” when it comes to western capitalist exploitation vs eastern totalitarian authoritarianism.
It’s ironically so privileged to even make the comparison because if it were the same, you wouldn’t have been allowed to make this comment.
I didn’t say both sides are the same. I made a stupid joke about a garbage operating system and the garbage company that runs it.
And your example of stopping people on the streets to inspect their phones doesn’t really do a great job at making the argument you’re trying to make. We have ICE running around and throwing people into contracted prisons even when they have proof of citizenship. We are trafficking people to foreign concentration camps. We are rocketing at light speed to a techno fascist authoritarian state and the level of surveillance we are under is increasing at a mind boggling pace.
So we aren’t the same, and the people currently in charge are striving to make the differences smaller every day.
Nah, the joke was fine. They overreacted.
In addition to your point, literally just two days ago I saw an article about a Texas sheriff running a search through a nation-wide network of license plate readers to track down a woman suspected of having an abortion.
Oh OK they didn’t stop her on the street, they just queried the panopticon system that tracked her movement as much as possible. Want to protest a genocide your state and university are sponsoring? Sorry, MIT will muzzle you and now you are now forbidden from giving the commencement address. Wouldn’t want to offend the dear leader in the white house.
I totally agree. Stuff like Microsoft recall is not great and America under Trump neither, but it is nothing compared to North Korea. That is a hellhole nobody who grew up in a free western society really can even imagine.
Frequently the point of comparing the two is to caution before they actually become comparable, though. I think it’s intentional hyperbole to make a stark point, not an insensitive reduction.
I’d rather live in NK then in Gaza: the West loves to create hellholes, and the US has the most prisoners of any country on earth so calling it a ‘free society’ is pretty rich.
More to the point, if any Western country had done to it what NK had done to it by the West during the Korean war, it would turn into a brutal basket case far worse then anything NK could imagine. Things like 9/11 and October 7 turn Westerners into frothing omnicidal maniacs, and those are completely negligible in scope compared to what the west has done to other countries, including Korea.
I agree, western capitalist exploitation is far worse, but privileged liberals in the imperial core aren’t the main victim, and they only care if their billionaire owned media tells them to.
It works both ways. Is OP allowed to make the comment because he is more priviliged or because he has less power and is less of a threat?
Remember the McCarthy era. There can be more restrictions if needed.
…
When you type South Korea it autocorrects to Puppet State and that’s actually hilarious.
I switched off my iphone autocorrect years ago for tge same reasons
We noticed.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cewd82p09l0o
I think that’s the link to the video?
Seems like it’s part of a longer video…
Edit:
Hhmmm here is a slightly longer video that doesn’t really add anything
Actual edit:
I genuinely couldn’t find a better source video
<img alt="" src="https://lemm.ee/pictrs/image/025024d8-c771-4f48-9436-b14a4cb79607.jpeg">
Ah, lol.
Is that the web interface? Or what app is that?
Voyager from F-Droid
[Welcome to the Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management Students course! The discussion forum is great for sharing ideas and clearing doubts. Joining the live Zoom meetings adds value by offering real-time interaction and deeper understanding of the course.
CLICK AND JOIN THE CLASS ](chat.whatsapp.com/Cn1MPEfP0T44YU9n1EWxZG )
[Welcome to the Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management Students course! The discussion forum is great for sharing ideas and clearing doubts. Joining the live Zoom meetings adds value by offering real-time interaction and deeper understanding of the course.
CLICK AND JOIN THE CLASS ](chat.whatsapp.com/Cn1MPEfP0T44YU9n1EWxZG )
Yes. North Korea.
WINK
Oppa gangnam style -> Comrade Gangnam style
oppan gangnam style - - >dongjin gangnam style ㅋㅋ
Did they read 1984 and think, “This is a fantastic idea!”?
Looks around modern day
You uh…you think N Korea is the only ones?
They’re definitely among the worst.
The North Korean government’s totalitarianism predates Ninteen Eighty-Four. North Korea might have been an input for Nineteen Eighty-Four, mind…
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The book does predate the North Korean utter totalitarianism. Nineteen Eighty-Four was published in 1949, the year after the Democratic People’s Republic was founded. It was based on the Stalinist Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
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Well maybe if they stopped taking all those screenshots with their fancy rice avocado phones they could afford a house!
I thought oppa was dad due to kims convenience. Seemed they like used it to refer to the dad.
Appa.
.ml admins and Tankies: “something something THATS JUST WESTERN LIES something NK is actually THE GOOD GUYS something something ITS JUST TO KEEP OUT WESTERN PROPAGANDAAAAA”
lemmy.world/post/29072279
Didn’t/doesn’t USA monitor webcams since 9/11? Iirc they took screenshots of webcams every 5 seconds. I assume everyone is monitored in terms of all digital communication.
They can’t see much through the electrical tape over the lens.
That’s what you think, but then they just use the wifi to get a 3d image.
Sounds like windows in America. Screw ms!
… How do you people think your stock mobile OS keyboard ‘learns’ how to better autocorrect to your manner of typing?
Do ya’ll think that data is not available, for sale, to any business or agency that will pay for it?
And monitored by AI.
The one I use is FOSS software that largely just stores a dictionary of used words. FUTO Keyboard isn’t perfect, but it is decent.
This is the way.
If I read somewhere correctly, they’re also the first to open source their swipe dataset:
huggingface.co/datasets/futo-org/swipe.futo.org
You can also contribute and help out with their dataset here:
swipe.futo.org
Hence why I only use foss keebs (Futo), or run gboard with network perms disabled.
Oh Windows recall beta.
The article doesn’t source literally any of these claims…
I have seen a video where they show the phone and the text censoring and screenshots being taken. I can’t remember where but might have been BBC’s YouTube channel or something like that.
It’s the first link in the article
Lol just read the recap here so didn’t see that
So the source on this is a western state-funded journalism media company using a phone which they claim they got from North Korea somehow?
It appears so. The commenter said they saw a video, I said it was the first link in the article. I didn’t post a video nor make claims to its validity.
It’s literally propaganda. For some reason I subjected myself to watching the BBC video that the article referenced and screenshotting the Korean text that the BBC video purports is autocorrecting terms in real time. Below are the findings
The only (half) correct claims they make are the “South Korea” and “comrade” translations, but they could just have set the autocorrect in the phone’s settings for each and every word in this video, before making it lmfao
Completely baseless claims and frankly pathetic attempt. Crazy how this shit spreads like wildfire
Based on the provided files, here's the translation analysis: 1. **IMG_0283.png:** South Korea 남한 | 1 ### Translation Analysis: 1. **Korean Text**: `남한` (pronounced "Nam-han") - **Literal Translation**: - `남` = "South" - `한` = Short for "한국" (Hanguk), meaning "Korea" - **Correct Translation**: **"South Korea"** 2. **English Caption**: The English text `South Korea` **perfectly matches** the Korean term `남한`. 3. **Additional Note**: The `| 1` appears to be a separator and numerical indicator (e.g., a menu/item number), **not part of the translation**. ### Conclusion: ✅ **Yes, the English translation is 100% correct.** - `남한` is the standard Korean term for "South Korea" (contrasted with `북한` for "North Korea"). ### Extra Context: - While `대한민국` (Daehan Minguk) is the formal/official name ("Republic of Korea"), `남한` is the universally used shorthand in daily language and media. 2. **IMG_0282.png:** * Korean Word: **동지** (dong-ji) - Found in the `[file content begin]` section near the bottom ("Comrade / 동지"). * English Caption: **Comrade** * Caption Correct? **Yes**. "동지" (dong-ji) directly translates to "Comrade". It's a term often used in socialist/communist contexts or historically in leftist movements in Korea. 3. **IMG_0281.png:** * Korean Word: **동지** (dong-ji) - Found under "Comrade". * English Caption: **Comrade** * Caption Correct? **Yes**. (Same translation as above). 4. ** Based on the content in **IMG_0284.jpeg**: Puppet state + 과뢰지역 ### Translation Analysis: 1. **Korean Text**: `과뢰지역` - This appears to be a **misspelling** of the correct term `괴뢰 지역` (goe-roe ji-yeok). - `괴뢰` = "puppet" (referring to a politically controlled entity) - `지역` = "region" or "area" - **Correct Translation**: **"Puppet region"** or **"Puppet state"** (contextually equivalent). 2. **English Caption**: `Puppet state` is **semantically correct** but not a literal translation. - The Korean term specifies "region" (`지역`), not "state" (`국가`).Not the best sources, a phone smuggled by a South Korean-based organization that is funded by the US National Endowment for Democracy and reported by state owned BBC, both of which are enemies of NK, and nothing in this article is verifiable. I’m not saying this to promote anything about NK but just from a journalistic perspective this article doesn’t prove much.
BBC is a pretty reputable source.
Anyone who still thinks that after the last year and a half of it operating as a pro-genocide propaganda outlet for Israel either hasn’t been paying attention, or are themselves pro-genocide.
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Are you still stalking me around?
So even North Korea does the FBI better than USA. lol
Wait, N. Koreans have phones?
I’m surprised this isn’t a lemmy.world comment
?
Well, at least we’re on a .world community. I’m doing my part!
So they can play the Diablo mobile game then?
in the west too our phones spy on us but everyone knows, everyone thinks it’s bad, and yet nobody cares
edit: because the sarcasm was lost on some, I am not advocating for this message.
I am mocking it.
Pretty sure our phones do this everywhere.
I like to think that GrapheneOS doesn’t, but if it did I’m not sure I would have a way of finding out.
Graphene is open source. I hope someone who can read what computers digest as code can make sense of it and give it the gold star.
Did you also build it from source?
GrapheneOS has reproducible builds.
I call that a normal day at Google or Meta
At least you can choose not to use their services. Not much choosing going on in North Korea
I guess a smart phone would be a luxury item in NK. So one could chose not to use one instead of being tracked?
In Germany the government and police use the word Quellentelekommunikationsüberwachung (telecommunication source surveillance) when they express their desire to have a Trojan on someone’s phone - to protect the children of course.
So the phenomenon is not unknown outside of NK.
Edit: fixed translation, thanks Muehe
Yeah, right, as if that can be used by humans, or if it’s even a word.
de.wikipedia.org/…/Telekommunikationsüberwachung#…
It means “telecommunication source surveillance”.
Wow, German is weird.
Meh, essentially it’s just writing “Telecommunicationsourcesurveillance” as a single word without the spaces to indicate it’s a singular thing being referred to (in this case the concept of directly listening on the source device before encryption happens). Might seem weird I guess, but you get used to it pretty quickly.
North korean are forced to use a smartphone?
The ones who have the ability to own such luxury might be. Sorta like how some jobs require it in other parts of the world.
All mobile manufacturers could be doing this too. All of the SoCs are proprietary black boxes as are the modems.
laughs in PinePho–
Sorry, my battery died as I was typing that
I ve heard this a lot, how are modems black boxes?
No hardware documentation whatsoever. We don’t know what registers and instructions exist at the lowest levels.
As far as I am aware, there is no way to totally shut off and verify all cellular connections made, like to pass all traffic through a logged filter.
That secret screenshot folder would eat up your storage quite fast, and it would be known, from whistleblowers, workers having to check the screenshots, “proof coming out from it” etc etc etc
There is certainly validity in the concept that no known instance of exploitation exists. However that is only anecdotal. The potential exists. Naïve trust in others has a terrible track record on these scales of ethics. Every instruction and register should be fully documented for every product sold.
An adequate webp image is only a few tens of kilobytes. Most people now have a bridged connection between their home network and cellular, unless they go out of their way to block it. Periodic screenshots are rather crazy. It would be much easier to target specific keywords and patterns.
I’d be interested in how this documenting could be done. If you’re a manufacturer, you’d probably want to keep everything secret - except what’s needed for a patent for example - otherwise the competition might get an idea of the proprietary things you make in house.
I mean I’m all for it, I just don’t see it happening unless under very strict regulations.
Well are we putting people in prison with the help of them? A secret screenshot folder nobody can exploit isn’t very useful …
Not saying it can’t be done (you are of course right there), we hand it over freely often, but that the implications are not death to your family.
You dont have to bring them to court with it for it to be useful. It could be used to target individuals then they use more conventional methods of evidence gathering to arrest.
I would guess they arent currently doing it enmasse because that doesnt sound useful either. I would say, solely on a vibes based level its been done by US intelligence. Its really not so different than a wiretap.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_tracking_dots
Let’s not forget sim cards are tiny computers as well.
Why doesn’t China, North Korea’s biggest trading partner, pressure them to be less authoritarian?
They don’t want to be like the US
This isn’t really up to China, NK won’t listen because it’s not really up to them either. Most authoritarians would love to scale the repression down, but you can only do it while political and economic climate is right (without losing your power and your head)
If you signal to your citizens that they can speak more freely, the first thing out of their mouths will be Hey why did you do that fucked up thing?
Thus, you can “loosen the bolts” only when you are safe in your position of power and don’t mind a few concessions to the masses. “Yes we overstepped a few lines, but it was all the fault of this one bad man and also look at all this bread we have now!”
This is why authoritarian countries usually have “seasons”.
Yes, it’s also that authoritarian leaders grow plenty of friends and relatives who’d done really fucked up things. It’s not in their control to just do the oppression legally and possibly to explain (as in “it was such a time”, “those were imperfect measures and we’ve found a better way”), if they don’t do serial murder\rape and drugs trade and racket and theft, someone of their surroundings will.
That’s probably also why western political climates are slowly becoming more authoritarian - it’s the same mechanism, just much smaller and slower. Maybe it’s not drugs\murders\theft, but it’s gray legal area tax evasion, suppose. Then after a few years it’s something a bit worse, and so on, gradually.
Like it’s impossible to make an eternal engine, it’s impossible to make a political system without this.
So much whataboutism in the comments
Yep, confunding dictatorships with google, sweeping Kim’s regimes horrors under the mat.
It’s almost like yes we have problems in our democracies but being put in prison because you don’t want to starve to death isn’t really on the list for us.
Depend of the country and or states. US have prison or starving on his list. Europe is a little better.
Lol wtf. Is the moon made of green cheese too?
Nope : www.startpage.com/sp/search?q=us+illegal+homeless And just read , or maybe you do not think of homeless as people ?
That is the main reason people are in prison in the West, you’re just privileged.
Oh yes the main reason people are in western prisons is because … They do not want to starve to death.
Are you an AI bot just reversing comments?
Most crime in the West is driven by poverty, yes. So unless you’re saying that NK literally convicts people for the formal, on the books crime of “not wanting to starve”, then it’s the same principle.
But I assume you already know you’re wrong, based on the fact you’re bringing out the personal attacks
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It’s literally is
Same on other comments feed. He go for personal attack once challenged. Probably a Trumpet
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A state that sees it’s citizens as a threat is broken by design and needs to be
changedfixed. It goes against the very idea of a state.there are very few places in the world where this doesn’t apply
by whom?
Sure does. There’s not one in history that worked out long term.
Usually by the citizens.
I wish we could…
I remember watching a series of Youtube videos by a guy working in the diplomatic department of a Southeast Asian country who I can’t name, and he took videos while on the sly, his camera (or phone) hidden carefully, showing some glimpses of life in Pyongyang. At one point he and his wife visited the government-run department store and, yeah, it’s pretty much a drab place to be there, you’ll be only buying necessities. However, there’s the special section where certain types of people such as high officials and foreigners are allowed to buy electronics, mostly with hard currency, and the merchandise included smartphones, all of them looked to be Chinese brands.
Sounds like Jaka Parker. Him and his wife are Indonesian diplomats. His videos weren’t really covert. He wore a very obvious bodycam most of the time. His videos are a bit dated now, but they’re still a fascinating glimpse into North Korea. Him and his family were often the only customers in a lot of the shops and restaurants he showed. Presumably they were meant for foreigners and/or elite North Koreans. He even has video of his wife giving birth at a maternity hospital.
Hm, only screenshots? By the way, this pales in comparison to what Google collects by default on every Android device. It’s really crazy. Have you seen the details of what they collect? Google literally logs every touch, along with the names of buttons and apps. You can turn this off in your Google account settings on Android, but most people don’t realize what’s being collected or how to turn it off.
Yes, Google’s code processes every touch, they wrote Android after all, so you are technically correct.
Is it all being sent somewhere from every Android device? Of course not, that’s ridiculous. Individual apps might have various levels of usage analytics though.
angry Snowden noises
Yes, I’m sure he’s angry people are diluting the invigilation he exposed by coming up with fake ones all the time, and making people think it’s not worth fighting it anymore.
Do you have something constructive to say? Did you read an interesting article about a new type of tracking by a security researcher? Maybe you ran your own network capture and found something previously unknown? Great, let’s share that and learn how to block it.
Do you just wave your hands around and say that Google knows everything about you at all times using all Android devices, through unspecified means based on your gut feeling? Then that’s not constructive and is just spreading helplessness.
Oh Google logs and collect all taps on the screen? I’d love to know through which system service that happens, how the data leaves the device, to which servers is it going, which devices are affected by this, and how we can disable it. Oh you made it up and actually there are no details? Right.
I don’t have the time right now to addeess all of this, but:
Device interactions can be used to identify users, predict and manipulate their behaviour, contribute to further identification measures etc…
Furthermore my point was that there are many reasons to be cautious about any type of data collection and processing. Saying a specific type would be ridiculous undermines the possible dangers stemming from this. Therefore I wouldn’t plainly discard these concerns.
Even if, in this context, the transmission is not widely noticed, this doesn’t pose a universal guarantee, especially if this can be turned on on demand via backdoors, trojans or whatever. Even worse if the transmission can be hidden. (Less likely for very proficient users with extremely tight network monitoring & control, but that’s rarely the case.)
I absolutely agree with you. What I’m arguing against is baseless FUD without any specifics, any sources, any details, and making extraodinary claims without extraordinary evidence. I didn’t mean that the type of tracking is ridiculous, what I’m saying is ridiculous is the claim that Google is collecting the logs of EVERY touch on EVERY Android device. Does that claim even needs to be disproven?
It is patently obvious it cannot be happening on EVERY Android device. And I’d welcome evidence that it’s happening on even a SINGLE one. But I don’t see it. Because it’s made up hyperbole that’s poisoning the discussion of real tracking.
Because your touches are tracked. But not system-wide, but in individual apps, by the individual developers, most of whom don’t share the data with Google, only if you use these apps, and each developer can only track what’s happening in their own app. Which is worth talking about, but it’s hard when people are just making stuff up.
I mentioned “Google Account Settings.” It is buried deep within submenus, so it is harder for regular users to find. However, you can find it by navigating through your Google account settings. Look for “Manage your data & privacy” > “History settings” > “Web & App Activity.”
Yeah, good stuff to tell people about!
But “Google is tracking your every touch on any Android device” is very different from “Google saves a history of your Google searches, and some major actions in some Google apps”.
Have you checked what’s in it? Every action and touch is logged with all the details. Many people didn’t even guess that such actions could be logged. It’s like super spyware activity; it’s very creepy. “Google is tracking your every touch on any Android device” - is exactly what it does.
I first noticed this issue around 2015, and I have been trying to disable it on every Android device since then. However, it re-enables itself from time to time. I have a few Google accounts, and it must be disabled on each one.
What I’m seeing, is that:
That’s already very far from every Android device, let alone every touch.
Hm, are there any categories? I didn’t see any, but maybe they’ve added them already. They log whatever they can. Today it’s smartphones and tablets, but tomorrow it could be other devices and other things to be logged and uploaded to Google, like screenshots. The problem is that it’s done behind your back, and many people are unaware of this creepy activity.
By the way, if you did not disable the option to automatically upload all photos to the cloud, then manually taken screenshots are already uploaded. Many people are too busy to find and disable this option. And we’re discussing North Korea here, LOL.
Equating photo backup, something that needs to be turned on and only uploads media you create, from folders you choose, to North Korean government taking a hidden screenshot of your screen every 5 seconds, is a gigantic stretch.
Definitely don’t use Google Photos, Google can’t be trusted with your photos. But wow these are completely different things.
Storing individual button presses is ridiculous because that is much too low level when the apps also have much more high level information about your activities available. It is literally more useless than data you can acquire just as easily.
Probably. Although such low level interactions can also contribute. Depending on what someone wants to do or needs.
Where can I disable this within my Google account I use on Android?
thats the same thing im asking!
replied above
replied above
That’s the difference between North Korea and the western world:
In North Korea the government forces spyware onto your device.
In the western world, people share their data voluntarily and publicly.
Instagram, Facebook, Dropbox and Co. made it possible.
And I definitely believe a NED sponsored SK site and the BBC. /s
There is no better regime than the West in this regard. Force things on people? You’re gonna risk a revolt or dissent. ‘Subtly’ make people dependent on your product so they’ll voluntarily use it and share everything with you while you ‘subtly’ control the algorithm in your favour? Now that’s perfect. Social media is the ultimate tool of power and governance.
Although North Korea is a very “successful” oppressive regime, largely able to have full control over information both in and out of the country and to greatly limit desertion. I can’t think of a “better” regime in this regard.
You’re gonna cook up a crazy theory like that and not even mention big daddy capitalism?
edit: I was making a joke, it didn’t land right. I agree with you, I probably wouldn’t be on this website if I didn’t.
What’s crazy about that?
Haven’t heard of, e.g., Cambridge Analytica?
How is that a “crazy theory”? Information control is not directly tied to capitalism but to any form of regime. The Western model and social media is, of course, strongly tied to capitalism and the desire for economic growth. How does that add to it?
It’s a matter of rhetoric a lot of the times with the states. We don’t invade countries, we defend democracy. Our government doesn’t spy on us, they protect homeland security. Etc etc
Reminds me of that great joke -
A KGB agent and CIA agent meet up in a bar.
“I have to admit, I’m always so impressed by Soviet propaganda. You really know how to get people worked up,” the CIA agent says. “Thank you,” the KGB says. “We do our best but truly, it’s nothing compared to American propaganda. Your people believe everything your state media tells them.” The CIA agent drops his drink in shock and disgust. “Thank you friend, but you must be confused… There’s no propaganda in America.”
Over analysis caveat of the joke
Of course it’s not state media directly in the states, but the same billionaires who own the state own the media, so it turns out all to be the same thing in the end.
Don’t worry, the western governments also do it
LOL BBC.
Remember, this could happen in your country.
Its always “It Can’t Happen Here” until it does.
What do you mean “could”? It does
.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GrapheneOS
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LineageOS
I’m glad these exists, but remember that these only work as long as device manufacturers don’t lock the bootloaders.
Your country’s government could pass a law that requires bootloaders to be locked for “national security” reasons, and there’d probably not be much resistance since most people don’t even use custom roms. (Looking at you, USA and the autocratization)
Then i guess i won’t have a phone anymore :/
murena.com
In the c/Privacy community, people say e/OS isn’t as secure as Graphene OS. Although e/OS has better privacy compared to googled android, but apparantly worse security (late security patches).
I feel like that’s a honeypot, kinda like that time feds made a phone to spy on cartels.
Unironically a good book about fascism happening in the US, and was written before 1984 and other dystopian novels that were largely reactionary to the USSR.
I love how, for everyone, media literacy seemingly goes straight out the window the moment North Korea is mentioned. I remember a few years back every mainstream media outlet reporting that sarcasm was banned in NK, and that everyone had to get the same haircut as Kim Jong Un. Journalism at its finest.
Then you get these two madlads who go and find out…
The news clip commentary:
youtu.be/ZmYAoQL9jjo
The full video:
youtu.be/2BO83Ig-E8E
The best boys
Holy shit actual media criticism and analysis on North Korea. Never thought I’d see this day.
The little clip with the meta-commentary on news stories commenting about them was hilarious yet insightful, so I definitely have to watch the full documentary they’re referencing (EDIT: especially if it’s just the 20 minute video you linked. That’s the full video? I thought I heard the word documentary so thought it would be longer).
It really is a shame, as accurate reporting enables their crimes to be documented better, and gives them less ammo on the world stage.
“How can we be mistreating our citizens? Remember when people said sarcasm was banned? Haircuts had to be approved and the same? How can you believe anything.”
Documenting people/governments/coprorations for the things they’ve actually done is the most we can ask for. Making shit up on the fly for a quick buck is the death of truth. It just enables them to deflect everything and anything.
There’s dozens of reasons to dislike/distrust North Korea. We don’t need to make ones up.
People who say things like “dozens of reasons” often list not a single reason. Trust me bro!
Stories like this likely give TACO Don a little mushroom chubbie.
Detectorship of Kim Jong Un
Is it really a secret if its known they do this?
It’s a secret smart phone that was smuggled out of the country by the Top Spies in the “Going to N. Korea to ride the subway” YouTube gang. We sent in some of our stealthiest and most clandestined professional infiltrators. Real Navy Seals meets Mission Impossible type guys. And they came out of N. Korea with this cutting edge “phone that randomly takes pictures while its in your pocket” technology.
Using the country’s state of the art telecommunications system and their cutting edge image processing technology, the Glorious Leader analyzes over 40 Zetabytes of information daily. This dragnet of highly accurate, insanely rigorous, and insidiously nefarious ultra-spyware is then handed over to a crack team of North Korean special agents who utilize their pre-crime tracing technology to break up hundreds of resistance cells every year, long before they can become a threat to the iron fisted communist regime.
It’s the only explanation for why North Koreans haven’t fully revolted and overthrown their despotic leadership. Juche Super-science keeps the rabble in line.
A secret no one kept is still technically a secret, an open secret maybe but a secret. I want to know if the people using these phones know about this software
Whaaaat? Are they using Windows smartphones with Copilot in Korea? 😮
Windows Recall is approved by the supreme leader.
That’s Best Korea^TM^ to you!
lemmygrad and hexbear users now scavenging for windows phones
Bill Gates is actually a based ally!
wait, so in NK they don’t say 오빠 at all? or they only use it in the proper context, a girl’s older brother? if they dont use 오빠 at all… what do girls call their older brothers? lol i dont think there’s a more native korean word than 오빠
Shhh youre not supposed to think critically, just nod along, be thankful for your freedom , and remain prepared to liberate those poor brainwashed souls.
omg did you ppl even read the article?
I’m glad I don’t live in North Korea because I wouldn’t want to traumatize their poor government with pics of my face and body in the morning. There are limits to cruelty.
Same
Think of all the pics they have of people sitting on the toilet.
From… screenshots?
I wonder if North Korea asks the phone manufacture to do the screenshotting things,etc or that the north korean goverment flashes roms
It’s funny, because it’s their government’s version of knockoff spyware, and decades out of date. Western governments get a live feed out of their backdoors.
Oh yeah, have there been reports on this ?
(Not trying to shut you down, I’m genuinely curious)
Yeah, there have been various leaks over the years that trickle out. Supposedly they’ve banned companies from operating in the US for refusal to comply with backdoor demands (Hawei, Kaspersky), some reports of backdoors built right into both Intel & AMD processors, some vague stuff that’s come out about backdoors in Windows, etc. Even when the companies refuse to comply, there’s been reports of US intelligence going into factories or intercepting deliveries to install spy chips into hardware. I recall there was a local ISP provider somewhere in the mid-west that got shut down for refusing to install spy devices in their facilities.
Really a lot of this was confirmed as far back as Snowden. And plenty of whistleblowers and leaks since.
There’s an extremely powerful backdoor in every processor/chipset. Intel named it “Management Engine” and AMD “Secure Technology”.
From the Wikipedia page on Management Engine:
ME has Serial over LAN, so it’s possible that attackers can have a more intimate access to your hardware than your Operating System.
I imagine other manufacturers have similar frameworks.
Full article.
Sure, those could theoretically be used for backdoor access to your computer.
However, they are trivial to spot on most routers. If you see another device on the ethernet port that your computer connects to, then something weird is going on.
Another important consideration is the fact that those technologies are meant for ethernet, while most people use laptops with wifi.
some of the things people claim that the North Korean government is doing are not sensible or even technology feasible
Carry your phone down the front of your pants
NK censors reviewing photos…
“Toilet, toilet, toilet, cat, toilet…”
I’m sure it’s automated. And a screenshot would be what you see on the screen, not what the cameras see
So glad that censorship bull shift can’t happen in a ducking free democracy! /s
I don’t know that ducks have democracy
Don’t give western companies any funny ideas.
They’re likely repurposing existing mechanisms western companies already have built and use. IIRC Apple or Amazon admitted this when they clarified they weren’t ‘listening’ per se.
[Removed by Reddit]
Thought this was real at first 😭
.
Yeah, but at least it’s our corporate overlords and not the government!!
/s
Unless the government wants to buy the data in which case it’s just good capitalism
They won’t even buy it, they’ll just find a zero day and steal the data while everyone is none the wiser.
No, I believe they come to the company and say “Give us a live feed or we shut you down. Also if you tell anyone we shoot your wife” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM
Lil o’ column A, lil o’ column B en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EternalBlue
Nicole Perlroth
This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race
is a must read for people. All agencies, from USAF through FBI to NSA, were buying zero days separately. En mass. As much as they could. Just in case.
Google bug hunting program stems from USA getting into their networks and stealing data.
Snowden may disagree with that.
not a very good secret.
Microsoft Recall: Amateurs!
Probly happens in the US too but we won’t know until a whistleblower comes forward and gets a lifetime of solitary confinement for telling us
didn’t google just announce android was gonna do the same thing?
edit: it was microshaft.
Yep. Just like with reverse-engineering software and making unintented use of proprietary services, whistleblowing depends at nobody being able to threaten you with jail or worse.
Your country should have made it law when Watergate and such were still fresh in memory. To make such mechanisms not just “de facto”, but “de jure” reality. Because any “de facto” either becomes “de jure” or vanishes without a trace.
EDIT: similar with “adversarial interop” CD was talking about
EDIT2: or Gutenberg and the printing press and the conflicts to ensue…
In the westwe call it Microsoft Recall
No that’s totally different… it will be used the same way but it takes much less manual work to perform
Say what you want about them but they’re the only one who truely know how to deal with the right wingers. Look at Germany, they abolished the Stasi and not even 30 years later the nazi are as popular as ever
There isn’t a communist party in NK is just a dictatorship. Do not confuse the two even if it tries to veil itself in thin rhetoric.
Do you know a communist country that hasn’t devolved into a dictatorship?
There can be no communist state as communism is anti-state, but the nordic countries in Europe are great examples of successful democratic socialism
The nordic countries are comparable to the US in terms of economic freedom (i.e. how “capitalist” a country is), the main difference is they have massive social welfare programs, whereas the US has more modest social welfare programs. That’s a very different definition of “socialism” than the classical one, where the means of production are owned collectively by the people.
Also, a country can be “communist” without having an actual communist society, being “communist” just means they loosely have the goal of achieving a communist society someday.
A liberal called the nordic states socialist
You take 3d6 psychic damage
Holy shit! Are you really unironically defending the North Korean government? Like, are you trolling?
Woah. That’s pretty wild. If you’re not trolling, what country are you from and how would you describe yourself politically? Where do you get your news?
hope the government likes my johnlock obsession
At that point give up the phone and live traditionally!
The true source of Microsoft innovations in Windows.
Seriously. This is exactly what people object to about Windows Recall. In its re-released version at least it’s opt-in for now, but it’s still eerily close to this.
does anyone really think our freedom phones are far from this?
Maybe the western world can be given some credit on being a tad more subtle, but overall the difference here are in tecnique, not goals
Its funny, a screenshot every 5 minutes that might be reviewed later on if needed sounds less intrusive than western efforts like google, amazon, etc.
What kind of tankie bullshit argument is that lmao
A factually accurate one lol
Eh, they didn’t exactly paint it in a good light. It’s more like not laughing too much at the ordinary NK citizen’s big brother plight while the rest of us are being monitored constantly and much more real time.
The two situations are not the same, but the parallels show his we all deal with this crap in our own ways.
Tracking someone’s history through screenshots sounds like a fucking nightmare for the person doing the searching.
It’s evil, but also a PITA for the analyst.
Can you provide more information on how western governments are spying?
en.wikipedia.org/…/Mass_surveillance_in_the_Unite…
That’s why laws like the GDPR exist to prevent this bullshit.
Does not exist in Murica
But it does in the EU and similar laws exist in other countries. I can do nothing about the corruption in the states
Ps. it does exist in Amerika
Not completely, but the Brussels effect still applies to some degree.
Did not know about that… thanks for the link
GDPR does not prevent foreign intelligence agencies from profiling you
Do you have a link to what foreign intelligence agencies you mean cause than I am going to use my right to be forgotten. Cause yea that will work.
Any SIGINT agency that deals with foreign intelligence is likely to have most of your deepest darkest secrets. The ones with most media coverage are NSA and GCHQ. Looking it up isn’t likely to yield very insightful results, other than perhaps some queer documents leaked by Snowden
Probably not considering I live in a generally low risk country (NL) and they can’t have something that doesn’t exist. International intelligence in GDPR countries generally goes through the own countries government unless there are signs that they cannot be trusted.
And they will be really wary of using illegally obtained data on somebody in NL since that will cause for a lot of attention on them and probably issues. So even if they have relevant data they should be hesitant of using it.
Yes, because here in the capitalist USA I am free to choose what phone and carrier I use, and what OS and software my phone have on them. The free market decided that I should have access to bootloader unlockable phones with open source OS and zero shitty Facebook apps spying on me.
Tell me you are blind to privilege without telling me you are blind to privilege…
I get what you are saying but claiming that Capitalism and the Free Market got you there is laughable.
A shit ton of people in the USA do not actually have a choice in carrier and choice of phone seriously depends on how rich you are, the spread is wide!
More importantly, how many people do you think have the tech knowledge (or access to pay) to get an open source OS in their phones?
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/16903d71-8d44-410a-b22d-91f8bbf798ac.png">
Yes, you captured yourself perfectly… I couldn’t have done it better
So just like the phones we have in North America.
I’d have been shocked if it didn’t record everything. Who you call, texts, voice, installed apps ans usage. Snapping pics is pretty grim, though.
I’m sure it’s not to the same extent, but I feel like US does the same thing just not as directly. Like the fact that they can triangulate my position at any moment in time with cell tower data.
Yep. Your private data is one corporate fuckup or subpoena away from being accessed. A pretty thin barrier.
Is the last sentence a pun? If so I really like it
after the linux nerds opt out. there’s still 98% of the flock begging for ai surveillance from recall and whatever apple’s scam is lately.
Naw, that 98% has no fucking clue it’s even happening
No surprise, with my interest in North Korean culture, I know a thing or two,video here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_(spyware)#Reuses
Could the north Koreans have a copy of Pegasus (like) software/spyware through russia? Pegasus is a proven solution to spy on Saudi Arabia (and others) on ios™️ and android™️ devices.
I’m totally shocked that a progressive free society like North Korea would tolerate such authoritarian invasiveness!
Thats so dystopian, that it can only screenshot every five minutes. Thank god i use windows, and get over 60x the frames-on my double 4k monitor setup. So much better than those filthy north korean peasants. I hope someday they have this freedom.
US, it’s every second they are monitoring.
Oh cool they got microsoft recall first