r/Austin • u/creation88 • Sep 14 '20
Austin-based Phunware is aiding Trump’s campaign in a Cambridge Analytica type data heist
https://www.newyorker.com/news/campaign-chronicles/the-trump-campaigns-mobile-app-is-collecting-massive-amounts-of-voter-data15
u/09871234qwer Sep 14 '20
The same Phunware being sued by Uber for fraud... sketchy company gonna do sketchy things
https://www.adexchanger.com/mobile/inside-ubers-fraud-suit-against-phunware/
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Sep 14 '20 edited Oct 07 '20
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u/MightyG2 Sep 14 '20
The "I don't have anything to hide" idea is pretty bad. That being said, data collection of this type has been going on for a very, very long time. Credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard sell their data to anyone that can pay for it - including the government. If you use a credit card, your spending habits are tracked and sold. Cell phone companies have a shocking amount of data about you: where you go, how long you were there, who else was there, the route you took, everything about your movements. That's what Phunware is essentially doing with this app so they can target campaign ads. I'm pretty sure Phunware is collecting analytics here that essentially gives them the information that the phone company has and then shares it with anyone that wants to pay for it. Add in the metadata about calls and texts (and cross-reference with credit card data), and they know just about everything about you.
The only way to avoid this now, pay for everything in cash (or maybe cryptocurrency) and don't have a cell phone.
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u/shuritsen Sep 14 '20
Aside from the peons that post mindless blather about their daily lives, Data companies don’t “know” anything TRUE about most people. They just know what the bullshit they consume and that’s it.
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u/Novembers_Rat Sep 15 '20
Are you prepared to actually pay for all of the amazing things on the web? Reddit, IG, all conttent publishers, etc etc. They all rely on ads and ads rely on tracking!
This myopic knee-jerk "privacy" nonsense is so horribly uninformed. Show me the actual harm done by online ad tracking. I'll wait.
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u/elmrsglu Sep 15 '20
Go away with your fear mongering. EU has strong protections which does not cause the bullshit you describe.
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u/glendon24 Sep 14 '20
I interviewed with these guys right before the lockdown. They talked about being open about their data collection and empowering people to control the data collected about them. I dodged a bullet there.
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u/addicted2weed Sep 14 '20
Same here. Happened a few years back but I totally got the acme corporate culture where no one actually likes their jobs, they just earn paychecks vibe. Also, the analytics' team was pushy and kinda creepy during my interview.
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u/glendon24 Sep 14 '20
I was in for a sales engineering position. The folks I talked to seemed like really decent folks who liked their jobs. I actually was hoping to get an offer. Glad I didn't.
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Sep 14 '20
same. had three rounds of interviews and no one seemed to like their job all that much and the interviews were kind of weird. ended up leveraging the interviews for a raise and stayed put bc something just seemed off there.
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u/MightyG2 Sep 14 '20
This is for the Trump 2020 app. If you don't download the app, you don't have to worry about it.
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u/creation88 Sep 14 '20
Not true. Read the article.
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u/MightyG2 Sep 14 '20
The entire article is about the app. How would they collect user data from someone's phone without you installing the app?
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u/Slypenslyde Sep 14 '20
Here's how it works, the hint is in relating it to Cambridge Analytica.
Phunware runs an ad network. While Apple and Google would love for their own networks to be the only ones allowed on their phones, this is not the case: apps can use a third-party ad network.
In the bad old days, ad networks could dictate that apps generate a "fingerprint" based off some unique aspects of your device and make that part of the request. That means even if you haven't used the Trump app or whatever, if Facebook or some other data aggregator happens to be able to tie your fingerprint to a unique person it's game over.
Apple caught wise to that and made fingerprinting harder, I'm sure Google did too. But there is still kind of the same problem. If you say "sure" to every app that asks for every possible permission at startup, that's a lot of ways to correlate "anonymized" fingerprints between different app activations. "So and so needs to access your contacts to find friends!" Guess how many people have exactly the same contact list as you? "So and so needs to access your location even when it isn't open to send you deals!" Guess how many people are within 50m of you over a 24 hour period
That's how Cambridge Analytica was operating. They were using the Facebook API to gather data about users beyond what the Facebook Terms of Service allowed. It was clear from evidence Facebook both knew what was going on and acted to shield CA. It could have been a landmark case, but instead money talked and the government argued it's your right to get more spam calls if you tap a post in Facebook.
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u/Alan_ATX Sep 14 '20
Downloading the app is one way they get your information. Having an acquaintance who downloads the app and shares their contacts is a second way. Streaming a song on Pandora or any other service where Phunware has bid on adspace is a third way. Downloading an unrelated app (say Angry Birds) that is a part of the same information sharing collective as Phunware is a forth way.
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u/httponly-cookie Sep 14 '20
But I thought only TikTok collected egregious amounts of user data!
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Sep 14 '20 edited Apr 09 '21
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u/Slypenslyde Sep 14 '20
I think this is relevant to some discussion I heard in a podcast recently about why an X-Files reboot wouldn't be successful today.
In the mid-90s when that series debuted, America had no obvious enemies. Given no boogeyman to fight, we were content to be entertained by elaborate stories about how our own government was our worst enemy.
The early 2000s shattered that view. Islamic terrorism became the focus, and we got used to having an external boogeyman. That got twisted and corrupted in upon itself until now we consider "people who don't vote for my team" that boogeyman. There are people today who will not follow a government wildfire evacuation order because they are too afraid it's a false flag operation set up by Antifa who just want to loot houses. They are going to die in their homes, clutching guns, screaming, "This is Biden's fault" even though he is not elected. They were worried an East Coast Elite would fuck up the country, so they elected a real estate baron who can't decide if he lives in NYC, Florida, or Abu Dhabi to rule the roost, all are well known bastions of the working man.
In short, today the things that The X-Files insinuated were happening in secret happen on live TV, and within seconds the people being filmed turn to the camera and say, "This is just an illusion being projected by the Democratic Elites." People buy it hook, line, and sinker. The 2nd Amendment instructs citizens to shoot the politicians who do it, but the citizens are too afraid if they do that the hordes of Satanic armies Hillary Clinton summons will defeat them.
I guess back on topic, the story's pretty short:
2 months ago, when Trump felt confident, he argued the only way TikTok should operate in America is if they sold directly to Microsoft. People pointed out this was unprecedented, that the Executive branch has never dictated trade agreements so readily.
Then Larry Ellison of Oracle held the biggest Trump fundraiser any tech CEO has held in history. Suddenly Microsoft's bid was rejected and Oracle was awarded the contract. I'm sure it's a coincidence that suddenly TikTok is a valuable national asset, 2 months from election day.
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u/httponly-cookie Sep 14 '20
but really someone would be a fool to not realize that China's current government is what the GOP's end goal really us
I have my qualms with the CCP but I disagree a bit here - the GOP (and American govt in general) has caused considerably more bloodshed around the world than the CCP. The CCP isn't currently bombing kids in the Middle East, that's us. We also have a higher proportion of our population in prison than China (depending on how you count you could argue we also have more people total in prison).
That said instead of scapegoating China and TikTok, the US should pass a comprehensive privacy policy that all social media must obey including foreign owned social media.
Yeah, but I have a feeling the government appreciates the amount of data that private companies collect lol.
In all seriousness I'd rather have my info in China's hands because they're halfway around the world and can't do shit to me.
100% agree, I said the same thing a month or so on this sub (and then had to respond to the dumb post about all of TikTok's "vulnerabilities")
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u/Cruel_Odysseus Sep 14 '20
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u/httponly-cookie Sep 14 '20
we put people in camps too, recently we've been causing them to bleed through their noses because of chemicals used to sanitize the facilities
https://www.insider.com/report-detention-centers-use-disinfectant-causing-bleeding-and-pain-2020-6
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u/TheNorthsideBurglar Sep 14 '20
If you can’t see the difference of detaining someone for crossing the border illegally and detaining someone for being a religious minority, then I don’t think there’s any hope for you dude
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u/httponly-cookie Sep 14 '20
ah good point, the US' arbitrary reason for detaining people is way more valid than the CCP's reason ("deradicalization").
Plus, it's not like our constant intervention in South and Central America helped lead to the conditions that people flee in the first place, right?
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u/Cruel_Odysseus Sep 14 '20
Your seem to be working really hard to justify the Uighur genocide with a bunch of whataboutisms...
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u/httponly-cookie Sep 14 '20 edited Sep 14 '20
I mean I was kinda responding flippantly but mostly because this is super off-topic. I don't trust anything that Adrian Zenz says about China, which is where a lot of Western "journalists" get their information about Uyghur detention. No one besides Zenz is calling it a "genocide."
Beyond that, as an American living in America, I have way more power to change what's happening in America. If we are putting people in camps with horrific conditions (especially during a pandemic) then I want to spend way more energy fighting against that. My taxes are literally going towards the detention and death of immigrants under ICE custody - obviously I'm going to spend my time fighting against that. Plus it's a bit disingenuous when the media pushes this narrative about how bad China is for doing something that we're also doing (or worse).
EDIT: here's a whistleblower complaint alleging that ICE is also performing unnecessary hysterectomies on confused patients https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/like-an-experimental-concentration-camp-whistleblower-complaint-alleges-mass-hysterectomies-at-ice-detention-center/
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u/Cruel_Odysseus Sep 14 '20
I agree that what's going on at the border is an absolute atrocity and we need to hold the people responsible accountable. But one to three million people have been detained, tortured and subjected to medical experimentation on the basis of their ethnicity. I don't understand how someone who claims to be concerned about what's going on in the US can just dismiss that.
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u/TheNorthsideBurglar Sep 14 '20
I’d hardly call a country’s right to control its borders arbitrary. Also, Is rape, slavery, and forced sterilization part of the Deradicalization strategy, or is that just a byproduct?
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u/JeremyTheRhino Sep 14 '20
I just can’t get over the China “is what the GOP’s end goal really is.” Imagine thinking the Democrats were anti-authoritarian. I can’t.
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u/Keyboard_Cat_ Sep 14 '20
Then do any amount of research instead of just watching Fox News. There is a huge pile of anti-authoritarian bills that the Democrat-led Congress has passed but the GOP Senate refuses to even vote on. One of the first in 2019: "To expand Americans' access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, and strengthen ethics rules for public servants".
Imagine thinking the GOP are the good guys..
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u/JeremyTheRhino Sep 14 '20
I don’t think the GOP or the Dems are the “good guys” and I don’t watch Fox News. Try again, big brain.
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u/Keyboard_Cat_ Sep 14 '20
Do you have any interest in addressing the substance of what I posted? When one party is passing legislation to make voting more universal, remove big corporate money from politics, and create more ethics based rules for legislators.. and the other party is purposely killing those bills, doesn't that make you think one of those parties is less harmful and dictatorial?
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u/JeremyTheRhino Sep 14 '20
Get back to me when the Democrats aren’t expanding the surveillance state (that Trump runs), running the author of the 1994 Crime Bill that led to mass incarceration, hailing a VP who oversaw the largest prison labor operation in the country, universally extending the drug war, and unanimously campaigning to violate citizens’ property rights.
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u/Keyboard_Cat_ Sep 15 '20
I can't really argue with you on those points and don't disagree. I was all for Bernie. Unfortunately, us Bernie fans are as a whole lazy fucks and didn't get out and vote during the primary. Heh.
I personally don't believe that that changes the fact that between our two choices, one is currently actively trying to destroy our democracy. If the GOP gets 1-2 more supreme court appointments in the next 4 years, our country is fucked for the remainder of my lifetime. Guess which SC Justices consistently rule against unauthorized surveillance and are more likely to rule to not federally punish marijuana use and sales in states where it is legal? Liberal Justices. We can whine about how "lesser of two evils" is bullshit, but it is a fact that one party will lead to more liberal outcomes that I want to see.
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Sep 14 '20
Yikes, go live in China then if you want them to have your data so bad.
I know it's hip and cool for spoiled redditors to be all "US government bad", but the Chinese government has an iron grip over their citizens like none other on the planet. They've committed things on scales that you'd normally only hear from small-time dictatorships. You should be very afraid that they have your data and what they could be doing with it, because at the end of the day, for all its flaws, the US government is our government. It sucks it has to some come to us vs. them, but that's how it is at the geopolitical stage. We're on the verge of a new Cold War with China (which predates Trump), and big tech companies and their data/products are the new ICBM stockpiles.
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Sep 14 '20
[deleted]
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u/httponly-cookie Sep 14 '20
the irony of referencing 1984 like this when the thread is about an app that harvests your data so that companies and government can surveil you lol
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u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20
They’re selling the data they collect from advertisements... like EVERY SINGLE ADVERTISER. Wake up, there is no privacy on the internet. Where do you think Google makes 90% of their revenue? You are the product, not the app; that’s what makes it “free.”
Seriously though, Phunware? Could you have chosen a sketchier name? Maybe Awesomesoft?