When you mention the BlackBerry brand name to people apart
from a common response of "are they still around?", it
could conjure up thoughts of secure communications of yesteryear.
After all the POTUS (President Of The United States), Barack
Obama had one, so it's got to be secure right?
EVEN in the colony called Australia, MPs were issued BlackBerrys where the phones were work-centric with security policies in action.
This had the unfortunate effect of hindering the politicians from playing games and social media distractions during business hours of course, where Apple and Google based operating system phones were installed in order to support the 'needs' of the politicians, to the dismay of the IT support crowd who actually knew a thing or two about security.
Once upon a time RIM (Research In Motion) founded by a Greek engineer Michael Lazaridis, later becoming BlackBerry
was king of the mobile telecommunications world due to new technology enabling
email to its mobile devices via proprietary communications which were even operational during a mobile
network blackout which proved invaluable to its users during certain scenarios.
Let's just forget the 4 day global BlackBerry outage where RIM lost $54 million, oops!
The rise and fall of BlackBerry has been a topic of a few
books, where its spectacular rise, share value, corporate restructure has
escaped the watchful eyes of consumer watchdogs where this is another topic
altogether.

Today BlackBerry is no longer a company that actually manufactures
telecommunications devices, where that was outsourced to TCL, but rather a
company providing services through software solutions in other directions,
under the current CEO John Chen.
New BlackBerry mobile phones are being promoted as secure
and private by Chen no doubt in order for the company to regain its share value, which
in itself is nothing wrong with that, if it were factually true.
The back end software in conjunction with the phone operating
system that made BlackBerry legendary for its secure communications was laid to
rest in the first quarter of 2015 in its final version with BlackBerry 10 Operating System, where as
recently as April 2018 a device software upgrade was rolled out to users.
By late 2015, the marketing 'gurus' at BlackBerry then
released a phone model called Priv, where the slogan used was Privilege and Privacy, no
doubt riding on the successful communications platform of yesteryear.
The 'problem' with that is the new phone or device as
Blackberry refers to it, is that it runs Google's Android operating system
which is contrary to the user's privacy or so called security despite whatever
the settings may be for each individual alleged action of blocking services or
restricting access to hardware or software.
For a corporation to allude that privacy or security for
that matter is intact with the use of Google's operating system is just plain
and simple false advertising, an action that should be resolved in the courts.
Has BlackBerry escaped with a huge corporate swindle?
See also article from 17 August 2018 by abc.net.au of the headline:
Google clarifies how it tracks a user's location even if they turn the setting off
Key points:
- Google tweaks help page describing how its "Location History" works
- An investigation found some Google apps stored user location with the setting off
- The privacy issue affects iPhone and Android users
After coming under fire from critics, Google has
clarified how it tracks users even if they've disabled a "Location
History" setting.
The search giant has revised a help page that incorrectly said turning off that setting would stop the tracking.
After
an investigation from the Associated Press revealed many Google
services store your location data even if you've used a privacy setting
that says they won't, Google updated the page to clarify that "some data
may be saved". But it has not changed the location-tracking practice.
Previously, the help page had stated:
"… with Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored."
The page now states:
"This
setting does not affect other location services on your device" and
acknowledges that "some location data may be saved as part of your
activity on other services, like Search and Maps."
In a statement, Google said: "We have been updating the explanatory
language about Location History to make it more consistent and clear
across our platforms and help centers."
Wait. Google tracked me even if I told it not to?
Yes.
Lots
of Google apps use your location information, which it stores in a
"timeline" (basically a picture of your daily travels) handled by a
setting called Location History.
The AP found some Google apps stored time-stamped data without asking you and if you turned Location History off.
Google
said to stop it from saving location makers, you had to turn off a
second setting called "Web and App Activity" that was enabled by
default.
If you turned Location History off but left Web and App Activity on,
Google only stopped adding to your "timeline". It did not stop Google's
collection of other location markers.
You can delete those markers by hand, but you need to do every one individually.
To
test this, Princeton postdoctoral researcher Gunes Acar carried an
Android phone with Location History off and shared the data with AP.
He was tracked:
- On two train trips to New York
- On visits to The High Line park, Chelsea Market, Hell's Kitchen, Central Park and Harlem
- To his home address.
It wasn't just Google Maps either
Things like automatic weather updates on Android phones pinpoint your rough location.
And
the AP found that even doing a Google search for something that had
nothing to do with location — like "chocolate chip cookies" or "kids
science kits" — pinpointed your precise latitude and longitude and saved
it to your Google account.
This happened to you if your phone ran on Google's Android operating
system or if you're an iPhone user who uses Google for maps or search.
Here's
what Princeton computer scientist and former chief technologist for the
Federal Communication Commission's enforcement bureau Jonathan Mayer
said about the practice before Google changed its help page:
"If
you're going to allow users to turn off something called 'Location
History', then all the places where you maintain location history should
be turned off," Mr Mayer said.
"That seems like a pretty straightforward position to have."
Google confirms external apps scan your emails
Here's which apps do it and how to check if you're affected
Google offers a more accurate description of how it tracks you, but it's out of the way
A
popup appears when you "pause" Location History on your Google account
webpage. There the company notes: "Some location data may be saved as
part of your activity on other Google services, like Search and Maps."
Google
offers additional information in a popup that appears if you
re-activate the Web & App Activity setting — an uncommon action for
many users, since this setting is on by default.
That popup
states that, when active, the setting, "saves the things you do on
Google sites, apps, and services … and associated information, like
location".
Warnings when you're about to turn Location History off via Android and iPhone device settings are more difficult to interpret.
On Android, the popup explains: "Places you go with your devices will stop being added to your Location History map."
On the iPhone, it simply reads: "None of your Google apps will be able to store location data in Location History."
Here's how to stop Google tracking you
Fair
warning, doing any of these will affect several Google services and
devices.
Things like maps, the Google Assistant or the Google Home
either won't work at all or will have their functionality severely
reduced.
For any device:
- Fire up your
browser and go to myactivity.google.com. Sign into Google if you haven't
already. On the upper left drop-down menu, go to "Activity Controls."
Turn off both "Web & App Activity" and "Location History." That
should prevent precise location markers from being stored to your Google
account.
For iOS devices:
- If
you use Google Maps, adjust your location setting to "While Using" the
app; this will prevent the app from accessing your location when it's
not active. Go to Settings - Privacy - Location Services and from there
select Google Maps to make the adjustment.
- In the Safari web
browser, consider using a search engine other than Google. Under
Settings - Safari - Search Engine, you can find other options like Bing
or DuckDuckGo. You can turn location off while browsing by going to
Settings - Privacy - Location Services - Safari Websites, and turn this
to "Never". (This still won't prevent advertisers from knowing your
rough location based on IP address on any website.)
- You can also turn Location Services off to the device almost completely, from Settings - Privacy - Location Services.
For Android devices:
- Under
the main settings icon click on "Security & location." Scroll down
to the "Privacy" heading. Tap "Location". You can toggle it off for the
entire device.
- Use "App-level permissions" to turn off access to
various apps. Unlike the iPhone, there is no setting for "While Using".
You cannot turn off Google Play services, which supplies your location
to other apps if you leave that service on.
- Sign in as a "guest"
on your Android device by swiping down from top and tapping the
downward-facing caret, then again on the torso icon. Be aware of which
services you sign in on, like Chrome.