Is our Nexus 6P being monitored by China?

[anon(6056554)]

In today's (11/15/16) New York Times, there is an article titled "Secret Backdoor in Some U.S. Phones Sent Data to China, Analysts Say" which says that a Chinese firm, Adups, which makes software for updating a smartphone's firmware, was discovered by a US security company to be monitoring owners' phone usage. One of the two manufacturers who use Adups is Huawei, the maker of the Nexus 6P. Read the article.

Here are some quotes:

"Security contractors recently discovered preinstalled software in some Android phones that monitors where users go, whom they talk to and what they write in text messages. "

"Adups intentionally designed the software to help a Chinese phone manufacturer monitor user behavior"

"Adups provides software to two of the largest cellphone manufacturers in the world, ZTE and Huawei. "

I posted the question on Google's Nexus 6P forum. My question has generated conflicting responses from the user community on Google.

I hope I get an official and reassuring Google response.

 

[Claude Speed]

In today's (11/15/16) New York Times, there is an article titled "Secret Backdoor in Some U.S. Phones Sent Data to China, Analysts Say" which says that a Chinese firm, Adups, which makes software for updating a smartphone's firmware, was discovered by a US security company to be monitoring owners' phone usage. One of the two manufacturers who use Adups is Huawei, the maker of the Nexus 6P. Read the article.

Here are some quotes:

"Security contractors recently discovered preinstalled software in some Android phones that monitors where users go, whom they talk to and what they write in text messages. "

"Adups intentionally designed the software to help a Chinese phone manufacturer monitor user behavior"

"Adups provides software to two of the largest cellphone manufacturers in the world, ZTE and Huawei. "

I posted the question on Google's Nexus 6P forum. My question has generated conflicting responses from the user community on Google.

I hope I get an official and reassuring Google response.

Google is making the software for this device, so there's no need to worry

 

[anon(6056554)]

Today's (11/15/16) New York Times has an article titled "Secret Backdoor in Some U.S. Phones Sent Data to China, Analysts Say" stating that a US security firm has recently discovered that smartphones made by Huawei had firmware installed in them to monitor its users. Since Huawei makes the 6P, it's important to know if we Nexus 6P owners might have this software installed on our phones.

The article says that a Chinese firm, Adups, who makes software for updating a smartphone's firmware, was discovered by a US security company to be monitoring owners' phone usage. One of the two manufacturers who use Adups is Huawei, the maker of the 6P. Some quotes from the article:

"Security contractors recently discovered preinstalled software in some Android phones that monitors where users go, whom they talk to and what they write in text messages. "

PS- BTW, I posted this same question this morning as a "guest", having forgotten to log in, and for some reason I don't see it on this forum.

"Adups intentionally designed the software to help a Chinese phone manufacturer monitor user behavior"

"Adups provides software to two of the largest cellphone manufacturers in the world, ZTE and Huawei. "

Here's the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/us/politics/china-phones-software-security.html

 

[Aquila]

No. Huawei has almost no control over the low level firmware where this sort of thing would be at and this sort of nonsense is not allowed on Android devices that have access to the Play Store; so we're talking about only the forks in China, etc. This sort of thing was discovered with Foxconn recently as well and impacted almost zero devices outside of China.

 

[Buddy1969]

I think, you've been "Trump"ed ...

 

[dty06]

Huawei has basically no contribution to the software side of things, even on a firmware level. And, as previously mentioned, the devices impacted are only in China.

Still, that is relatively disconcerting for Chinese users, though I would not be surprised if this kind of spying on users is widespread in China.

 

[thatguy97]

Huawei has basically no contribution to the software side of things, even on a firmware level. And, as previously mentioned, the devices impacted are only in China.

Still, that is relatively disconcerting for Chinese users, though I would not be surprised if this kind of spying on users is widespread in China.

Chinese users are probably aware they are being spied on and monitored to begin with anyway with or without this phone, I bet even if this went public the Chinese media would censor it and even if they didn't censor it, people wouldn't care anyway.

 

[Buddy1969]

It's probably naïve to think, this is only a Chinese problem. Intelligence agencies deal in informations. Google et al do so as well. I don't think there is much in the digital world, that can be considered a secret ...

 

[LeoRex]

Stepping back a second... in terms of the 6P, it is pretty hard to sneak something into that phone and not have anyone sniff it out. Nexus phones have always been pretty transparent.... they are rootable, unlockable, anyone can go in and get all up in its business and pick apart pretty much everything. If there was a little mole in there phoning home to China, it most likely would have been caught within days of the 6P getting launched. Never mind the fact that I don't even think it would be possible for Huawei to slip this past Google... who would absolutely freak out if that happened.

 

[Aquila]

It's probably naïve to think, this is only a Chinese problem. Intelligence agencies deal in informations. Google et al do so as well. I don't think there is much in the digital world, that can be considered a secret ...

This specific problem is - are there other problems? Maybe.

 

[thatguy97]

*insert X-Files music here

 

[420lyfe]

I wouldn't doubt it. Every single phone in the world is being monitored by: China, Russia and the U.S. of course. Don't worry about the 6p. Every phone is closely monitored in 2016/17 believe that...

 

[Buddy1969]

*insert X-Files music here

Made my day

 

[dty06]

It's probably naïve to think, this is only a Chinese problem. Intelligence agencies deal in informations. Google et al do so as well. I don't think there is much in the digital world, that can be considered a secret ...

This is very, very true. But there's a difference between making the security-conscious decision to assume your information is being collected and actually knowing that it's happening. A personal device shouldn't be handing over the information by default. I fully expect that anything I put online can be intercepted or monitored, but knowing that it actually happens and that the device in my pocket is intentionally making it easy is a very different story.

 

[edwin walke]

Today's (11/15/16) New York Times has an article titled "Secret Backdoor in Some U.S. Phones Sent Data to China, Analysts Say" stating that a US security firm has recently discovered that smartphones made by Huawei had firmware installed in them to monitor its users. Since Huawei makes the 6P, it's important to know if we Nexus 6P owners might have this software installed on our phones.

The article says that a Chinese firm, Adups, who makes software for updating a smartphone's firmware, was discovered by a US security company to be monitoring owners' phone usage. One of the two manufacturers who use Adups is Huawei, the maker of the 6P. Some quotes from the article:

"Security contractors recently discovered preinstalled software in some Android phones that monitors where users go, whom they talk to and what they write in text messages. "

PS- BTW, I posted this same question this morning as a "guest", having forgotten to log in, and for some reason I don't see it on this forum.

"Adups intentionally designed the software to help a Chinese phone manufacturer monitor user behavior"

"Adups provides software to two of the largest cellphone manufacturers in the world, ZTE and Huawei. "

Here's the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/us/politics/china-phones-software-security.html

The NYTs. You believe anything they print?

 

[Zenrage]

If anyone is monitoring my phone they are going to be pretty bored by what they find.

 

[Buddy1969]

... fully expect that anything I put online can be intercepted or monitored, ...

This is my thought: why would anyone try to break into a phone, when all you have to do is catch and collect transmissions. Most of the data of a phone is or has been transmitted at least once. I guess you really don't need to break into phones anymore nowadays...

Just my 2 cents