Palm Pre kicks privacy square in the jewels

Robert Hallock 12 Aug, 2009 at 2:41pm ET Article published in Tech

Did you know that the Palm Pre phones home with GPS coordinates, a list of installed applications and an application crash log?

No, really: It’s true.

Really, Palm? Really?

When will companies learn that collecting and relaying any information about a consumer without blindingly obvious notification is a Very Bad Idea™?

Comments

12 Aug 2009 ~ 3:22pm AlexDeGruven

When will companies learn that collecting and relaying any information about a consumer without blindingly obviousnotification is a Very Bad Ideaâ„¢?

Well, that's an easy one: They won't. As evidenced by the myriad privacy infringing items that tech people come across on a daily basis.

It doesn't surprise me that they did this. It even doesn't surprise me that they got caught doing it.

Software/hardware/media companies have shown a proven track record of "Sure, put it in. It's not like they'll notice."
12 Aug 2009 ~ 3:30pm Snarkasm iPhone

Kindle

Pre

I'm betting our cars will start phoning home speeds and locations soon.
12 Aug 2009 ~ 3:31pm AlexDeGruven

Snarkasm wrote:

iPhone
I'm betting our cars will start phoning home speeds and locations soon.

Some rental car companies have already tried this. Even to the extent of serving renters with 'speeding tickets' when they turn in the car.
12 Aug 2009 ~ 4:31pm Daniel Nice job Palm. It was nice knowing ya. Too bad you did something stupid and we had to break up.

I'll stop by and drop a Zire on your tombstone.
12 Aug 2009 ~ 5:02pm djmeph ...Sooo Palm knows where I've been?
12 Aug 2009 ~ 6:21pm djmeph I was just looking through the settings and it appears that the "feature can be turned off
13 Aug 2009 ~ 8:44am AlexDeGruven

djmeph wrote:

I was just looking through the settings and it appears that the "feature can be turned off

That's fine and dandy, but the crux of the issue is that it should be the other way around.

It should ship with it turned off, giving the user the option to turn it on.
13 Aug 2009 ~ 11:12am djmeph I still haven't turned it off. I really don't care. I mean, I use Gmail. I know what I'm getting into.
4 Sep 2009 ~ 12:50pm lmorchard FWIW: Other phones do this, if only by way of cell tower triangulation. It just happens to be really easy to get full access to logs and internals of the Pre.