Australian’s incumbent telecommunications provider Telstra recently announced that they would be ceasing to provide their i-mode service that they launched so expensively only a few years ago. The news is that UK operator O2 has done the same.
The Register has an interesting op-ed by Bill Ray on why the i-mode failed: Culture matters: Why i-mode failed and why the hype about broadcast mobile TV may also be misplaced in the West. The main difference between the two cultures is the lack of TVs and personal computers in bedrooms (often there is just not the space). So the mobile platform is going to much more attractive as it’s your most convenient source of the internet than when you have it pretty much on tap in the privacy of your own room.
O2 and Telstra will be rueing an expensive mistake with i-mode. Half the money spent on a decent WAP billing platform would have given them all the important functionality, but they saw the success of i-mode in Japan and thought customers were buying a technology, when in reality they wanted an experience suited to their culture.
Technology now actively enables our public agendas but this often comes at the expense of many of our private ones.
I was at the Mobile Media 2007 conference recently and Genevieve Bell gave a brilliant keynote overview. She raised the point that our human nature means that we will want to lie and obfuscate but now our technology rats on us.
I remember when video phones were touted to take over talk but here we are some years later and not only have video phones not had their predicted uptake but the grossly overpriced text messaging is still rampantly popular. Simply we like to control our communications but we don’t realise (or forget) how much information does actually leak out if someone is looking for it.
It is a supremely disturbing thought to know that while I carry my mobile phone and it is switched on, my every movements are being recorded and stored. There are no requirements to de-identify that data in the system either immediately or after a specific period of time. In fact, it’s been a big surprise present for law enforcement agencies in their unending battle against crime as they can now present seemingly credible evidence that someone was at a particular place at a particular time because that’s where their mobile was.
And you know they probably were there doing whatever ever crime they were charged with. But what worries me is that it’s also a pretty easy way to set someone else up. Just borrow their mobile phone. In the conference, there was plenty of evidence of the disconnection between assumptions of use of mobile phones and observed actual uses. Like back the 90s when it was assumed that an email from a certain person if their email address was in the “from” field (hopefully we now know how easily that can be faked), it’s assumed all too readily that an sms is from a certain person if their number shows up. One paper talked about how teenagers in Milan played games with their mobiles, eg girls giving their phones to their friends unbeknowst to other friends. I know myself that it’s easy enough at the pub or at a party to have had stuff done to your mobile phone while your bag was unattended - I’ve had ringtones and languages changed a number of times.
Now comes the news that technology also allows your friendly stalker to gain access to all the secrets held through your phone: Computerworld Opinion: The stalker in your pocket
Camera phones contain all the necessary ingredients for completely invasive stalking: a microphone, camera, personal data on the user, location information, a chat and call history — you name it. And victims carry them everywhere they go. All that’s missing is the software that lets stalkers take control.
This new software, called snoopware, does just that. Snoopware — both legal and illegal — enables stalkers to secretly seize control of a phone’s electronics to listen, watch and spy on their victims.
For the time being there are some things you can do:
The best cure is prevention. Don’t allow strangers to gain access to your phone. Like any other kind of software, snoopware doesn’t install itself. The leading methods for installation are physical access installation, where the user installs by clicking on an attachment or link; or via Bluetooth. By preventing potential stalkers from touching your phone, never clicking on e-mail attachments or links from strangers, and turning off Bluetooth autodiscovery, you’ll keep snoopware off your phone.
And if you do think you’ve been infected then Mike Elgan suggests some solutions like getting malware software, turning on passwords for your voicemail, downgrading your mobile to a less advanced model that doesn’t support Java or Bluetooth and/or switching carriers to one that’s better at protecting their customers.