I have found a couple other people talking about this (can't post links yet, sorry), but it seems that people are largely unaware that Android does this (if you look at that other thread it is mostly people suggesting how the TC probably did enter relevant information into google somehow).
So basically it seems that at least some Android phones are listening and interpreting what is said during phone calls. People have said that they would hear about a restaurant from a friend on the phone, and then cards for that restaurant would show up in google now. Or advertisements would start to show up in google ad services. Or in my case, I got an address over the phone, wrote it down on paper, went to google maps and typed the first two numbers of the address (the street number of the address was four numbers long) before the first suggested address popped up and lo-and-behold it was what I was going to type. This was moderately convenient I suppose, but I am a little uncomfortable with how little I know of the extent to which this is happening.
Has anyone else noticed this behavior? Is it somewhere in some permission that I don't remember accepting, or in the general TOU of the OS?
My main concern isn't really THAT Android does this. Like I said, it can be convenient, and I already ignore pretty much all advertisement without even having to think about it at this point so targeted ads don't bother me so much (though there was one instance where someone suspected they started getting spam emails via this method, which sounds annoying). I am more worried that I don't know where ELSE and how ELSE this information is going/being used.
I'm on a Verizon Note 3, for reference.
A bunch of people looked at this but no one responded, so I want to give it a little poke. At this point I am fairly certain that some voice recognition is being done during phone calls. I'm still not certain how I feel about that.
Hi,
I recently met someone online who was a romantic type of encounter but the more we spoke the more creeped out I got by the things hes seemed to know about me.
I finally came to the conclusion the things he said to me were extremely huge red flags, there was no way it was a coincidence anymore, and he knew FAR too much about things personal to me such as separate email accounts, and fake birthdates I use as only the last straw before I concluded to reset my device.
Code:
Alcatel
One Touch
Fierce 2
Kitkat
Thats the device I have. We 1st spoke on Kik and he sent me 2 pictures. One was of him that would not open an image. I tried to open it several times but it was just a blank picture.
The second I was able to view and download.
Does anyone know if this is possible to become infected by those means alone?
Otherwise it is possible he made a fake account and infected me with a link that did not work, but I was always under the impression that it was not possible to become infected by Rat or Keylogger with out installation. I was told in a recent thread I could become infected with opening a false link(???).
Im pretty much 100% sure I was infected. I hard reset my phone, but not the SD card yet. I believe the virus is gone, but I feel very creeped out this happen and do not see this going anywhere further but I would like to know if it is even possible. Theres no way Im being paranoid, but I do get a little over worried sometimes, unfortunately I think this was one of the genuine times.
How is it possible if someone did? Anybody have a link to a good article I could learn more? Thanks. PLEASE FORWARD TO ANYONE WHO MAY HAVE ANY ADVICE AT ALL WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED
Most likely he (or she) learned information about you some other way.
You might be surprised what people can learn from the "right" Google searches using some known info like email and city.
If a password on some account can be guessed, that can provide a flood of info, like reading every email or forum posts.
Most infections are from Android apps installed outside of Google Play. Image file viruses are theoretically possible, but I don't recall hearing of any such thing lately.
Please use this thread to continue this discussion: http://forum.xda-developers.com/general/security/getting-infected-android-device-t2989738
Hey guys, I'm currently using a rooted Samsung Galaxy S6 G920W8 with Wind Mobile. I have an issue, and it's with spoofing the MAC address of the device. My parents have blacklisted my MAC address so I am no longer able to access the wifi. The router that I'm trying to connect to is a Bell Home Hub 2000.
Let's say I used an app (any apps) from the Google store (along with Pry-Fi, which destroyed my wifi and I had to reinstall the stock OS to make it work again), it temporarily changes the MAC address until I restart the wifi, but here's the catch: there's an authentication error when attempting to connect to my wifi. Terminal commands produce the same auth error. I don't experience the authentication issue when spoofing the mac address on Windows 7 and 8.1.
Keep in mind I'm a wannabe when it comes to android-related things. I don't know what I'm doing 99.99% of the time.
I've tried tampering around with /efs/wifi/.mac.info and changing the MAC from there, nothing happened.
I've also tried tampering around with /.init.wifi.rc, setting .mac.info to read-only and executing the file. Still no luck.
I remember once I was tampering around with the two files mentioned above and I somehow managed to make it work, but I don't remember how.
I've tried using Locally Administered MAC addresses and Globally Unique MAC addresses, but that still didn't do the trick.
I'm hoping someone here might be able to help me out in any way by providing clear steps as to what I should do.
If someone could provide a custom kernel that would fix the issue, that would be fantastic.
Thanks for reading.
Spoofing a mac address is not completely easy without things getting messed up completely.
If your parents blocked it then to be honest take the hint.
Also they may not blocked it persay but set only allowed macs to connect. This is what I did to my kids devices. Now unless I add the device. Nothing connects.
zelendel said:
Spoofing a mac address is not completely easy without things getting messed up completely.
If your parents blocked it then to be honest take the hint.
Also they may not blocked it persay but set only allowed macs to connect. This is what I did to my kids devices. Now unless I add the device. Nothing connects.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't mean to sound rude, but I asked for a solution, not for advice from a parent's perspective. Now if you read carefully, you would've seen that I'm able spoof my mac on a Windows OS and successfully connect to the internet. Take the hint, it means MAC filtering is disabled.
I appreciate you taking the time to write a reply, though it isn't exactly the one I'm looking for.
BouncingHitman said:
I don't mean to sound rude, but I asked for a solution, not for advice from a parent's perspective. Now if you read carefully, you would've seen that I'm able spoof my mac on a Windows OS and successfully connect to the internet. Take the hint, it means MAC filtering is disabled.
I appreciate you taking the time to write a reply, though it isn't exactly the one I'm looking for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Saying it works on windows is completely pointless. They are 2 very different operating systems. Just because something can be done on one doesn't mean it can be done by another. Now as changing the Mac is in the Grey of being illegal you will be hard pressed to find any help here. Let alone the Mac is hard coded and once you mess it up there is almost no recovering and most of the time you can never connect to wifi ever again as it get stuck on an invalid Mac.
Now this isn't even from a parents view. It's from just another person. You should respect their wishes. Want to do what ever you want then get your own Internet connection.
zelendel said:
Saying it works on windows is completely pointless. They are 2 very different operating systems. Just because something can be done on one doesn't mean it can be done by another. Now as changing the Mac is in the Grey of being illegal you will be hard pressed to find any help here. Let alone the Mac is hard coded and once you mess it up there is almost no recovering and most of the time you can never connect to wifi ever again as it get stuck on an invalid Mac.
Now this isn't even from a parents view. It's from just another person. You should respect their wishes. Want to do what ever you want then get your own Internet connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It must be a coincidence that I might not find any help here, as there's a lot of unanswered threads in this sub-forum. Everything I've learnt regarding mac spoofing for android was found within the xda forums, so please. Yes, you are right. The MAC got stuck on an invalid MAC and I had to reinstall the stock firmware.
Again, I need solutions. I don't care about information that won't help me advance forward with what I'm trying to accomplish. I know it's possible, because like I've mentioned in the original post I've succeeded doing it by accident.
Please stop further wasting my time in writing useless replies and do like the other 15+ thread viewers: don't write anything if it isn't contributing towards my success with spoofing the MAC. :good:
BouncingHitman said:
It must be a coincidence that I might not find any help here, as there's a lot of unanswered threads in this sub-forum. Everything I've learnt regarding mac spoofing for android was found within the xda forums, so please. Yes, you are right. The MAC got stuck on an invalid MAC and I had to reinstall the stock firmware.
Again, I need solutions. I don't care about information that won't help me advance forward with what I'm trying to accomplish. I know it's possible, because like I've mentioned in the original post I've succeeded doing it by accident.
Please stop further wasting my time in writing useless replies and do like the other 15+ thread viewers: don't write anything if it isn't contributing towards my success with spoofing the MAC. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First off don't bother telling me what not to post.
Second off as it is borderline illegal to do so you are lucky I didn't just delete the thread when I saw it.
Also keep in mind this is not a support Forum. It's a developers forum.
zelendel said:
First off don't bother telling me what not to post.
Second off as it is borderline illegal to do so you are lucky I didn't just delete the thread when I saw it.
Also keep in mind this is not a support Forum. It's a developers forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MAC spoofing isn't illegal unless you're intending to do malicious things with it. Besides, this thread is posted in the subforum called "Android Development and Hacking Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting". In case that didn't ring a bell, it's here where people ask for support. I figured seeing this is a android developers forums, there would be a plethora of smart people that could help me with a platform that I'm not familiar with.
Here's the deal, I'm paying part of the rent and the internet, but seeing there's a conflict between the relationship with my mom's boyfriend and I he decided to be a **** and block me off. Now, is MAC spoofing to get access for something that I paid for in any way illegal? No, it is not. Are you happy that I had to enlighten you on what's going on in my life in order for you to understand the situation? Are you going to ask me to respect my mom's boyfriend's wishes?
Please, respect my wishes and leave the thread which I started alone. You're causing unwanted commotion and spam just because I asked for a simple request. The best thing you can do is just bite your tongue and not reply to my thread. You should private message me if you have a problem, not tell me "you're lucky I didn't delete your thread" in order to gain leverage over the argument. If it was illegal you would've deleted it at first sight. I expect more coming from a reputable Senior Moderator that's been around for almost 10 years.
BouncingHitman said:
MAC spoofing isn't illegal unless you're intending to do malicious things with it. Besides, this thread is posted in the subforum called "Android Development and Hacking Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting". In case that didn't ring a bell, it's here where people ask for support. I figured seeing this is a android developers forums, there would be a plethora of smart people that could help me with a platform that I'm not familiar with.
Here's the deal, I'm paying part of the rent and the internet, but seeing there's a conflict between the relationship with my mom's boyfriend and I he decided to be a **** and block me off. Now, is MAC spoofing to get access for something that I paid for in any way illegal? No, it is not. Are you happy that I had to enlighten you on what's going on in my life in order for you to understand the situation? Are you going to ask me to respect my mom's boyfriend's wishes?
Please, respect my wishes and leave the thread which I started alone. You're causing unwanted commotion and spam just because I asked for a simple request. The best thing you can do is just bite your tongue and not reply to my thread. You should private message me if you have a problem, not tell me "you're lucky I didn't delete your thread" in order to gain leverage over the argument. If it was illegal you would've deleted it at first sight. I expect more coming from a reputable Senior Moderator that's been around for almost 10 years.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still not a support Forum.
Now you might want to check your attitude at the door.
So let's look at this for a min. If the Internet account is not in your name then it is illegal by the letter of the law. Doesn't matter who pays for what.
The only reason I didn't delete it is so it comes up when others search this topic.
You want to get this fixed then you have 2 choices. 1. Fix the issue you have at home with your connection. 2. Figure out how you got it to work before.
Now I will end this here and close this thread. Good luck to you and what ever you figure out.
So my ex girlfriend is convinced that I have somehow hacked her phone. (I haven't.) So much so that she drowned an HTC phone and got herself a new Droid Maxx. However she is still having the issues that led her on this paranoid delusion. I am looking for someone to help me explain to her she has not been hacked, or if I am wrong to correct me.
The story starts with her saying that her Facebook app on the phone is acting funny. Yeah the nebulous adjective, funny. When I asked her what does she mean by that she has various performance complaints as well as the app crashing at inopportune times. Setting aside such shaky evidence of somebody hacking a phone (because as you know, one thing a hacker does not want to do is let their victim know that they are inside their phone and thus shutting down the exploits they have already put in place) I am now seeking anyone who knows more about this than I do to help explain what she is seeing so that she stops accusing me of something I am not doing. To make matters worse ex-girlfriend decides to start monkeying around with things that she doesn't understand inside her phone settings and discovers something that I finally find to be odd but can't really explain away.
She went into her old phone (an HTC M8 I believe) account synch settings and sees the Facebook mobile number displayed as not her own. In fact it's not even a proper number. Here is a screen shot from the new phone (my memory says that a very similar result was on her old phone):
(Annnd Dammit since I am a fairly fresh user I cannot post a pic link, if you are trying to help me PM me and I think it'll let me pate you the link)
(Or I can try to put 5 spaces in the link to make it non working and if you have the patience copy it and take the spaces out to go to the screen shot)
http: // imgur.com / Mfba WdE
The number listed is not even a complete number and does not come up in any useful way in Google searches. This odd number was on her previous HTC phone before she sent it for drowning and then her new Droid Maxx phone is showing the same thing.
As you know it's useless to go and ask Facebook for any sort of support seeing as how we are not their customers, we are actually the commodity they sell to advertisers so they could give a rat's ass about assisting their commodity. Remember when you don't pay for something then what is being sold is you.
I must add that she also has confirmed to me that when she signs in to Facebook in a browser on a PC she does not see her number replaced inside her profile. It seems really very odd to me how her mobile app still knows how to link with her regular profile when the number is not matching. I have an HTC One M9 and I do not have the same behavior as she reports. According to her she can still see her news feeds and friend posts and all that Facebook goodness. She says she has Avast running on the phone, and she does not install any software not obtained through the Google Play Store.
My research came up with not a very convincing theory. What I found was a dated forum post regarding a Facebook feature that had been discontinued. The feature being cited was like an address book feature that sought to synch the phone's address book and the Facebook Friends list and address book together. But the discussion did not quite match what I was observing so it is unconvincing that I found what the cause was.
Can anyone follow this story at all? Has her phone been hacked? Can anyone tell me a better place to post a question regarding this?
Heyyo heyyo. "I've got an Android G5 running 7.0 software, it's a LGUS992 and the carrier is under US Celluar.
I know this is going to sound like some tinfoil hat **** and someone who's hearing things, hallucinating, etc but without a doubt. 100 %. someone in my community has access to my phone [and my Chromebook, actually] I'm not very computer savvy but I know there are means through which you /might/ be able to do this kind of thing- stealing wifi, malware or spyware, keylogging, some kind of physical device, etc
I've heard people mention things as specific as individual songs I'm listening to, passwords I've used, things I've typed, etc. Like literally /everything and anything/ I'll do on my phone, I know people have access to and I absolutely need to know how this is being done and how I could stop it, I've been a phone addict for years, use mine for both professional and personal purposes, and since I live out of state from most of my family and friends it's literally the /only/ way I can talk to 99 % of the people I know. My life is already in the dumps, so to lose my main access to a ton of the important people and things in my life is soul crushing and whoever does this doesn't care at all.
It's not just something that could be from my Gmail account being linked through my devices and then hacked. I've heard mention of texts, etc. Phone only, offline stuff. Does this sound like something that could be done and if so, evaded somehow? I even considered that the park I live in might have cameras inside the places but that wouldn't explain why I hear about **** I'm doing no matter where it's done
I've changed my phone password, Gmail password, Skype password, Youtube password, put on a PIN, put on fingerprint access for my phone, blocked off unfamiliar MAC addresses on my router and this has still continued. Someone in the Galaxy S5 forum said I could try "resetting the whole thing - meaning all partitions on it - to stock configuration via a special tool." but like I said, I'm not computer or phone savvy so I wouldn't know how to or if this'd even fix the problem