OK. What I am about to ask is probably stupid and/or paranoid. But since I m newbie about security on mobile telephony, I ll do so anyway. So pardon me in advance if it doesn't make any sense.
On my recently aquired new job (telecoms industry), I have been given a basic phone, a SIM (company contract), that includes a s***load of free GBs of data, voice minutes and free SMS). Which is a package far better compared to what I m currently having on my Galaxy S7 (I m only having few voice minutes and SMS - no data).
The company phone is totally rubbish compared to my S7, so I am planning to use this new company SIM on my S7, and enjoy all those benefits. So far so good.
My concern is this: I ve got some 'private/sensitive' data on my S7 and I am worried if there is any way that these could be seeing/read by telephone provider (and by a far stretch) my new company (which obviously have a contract with the provider). My rational side says that my company can only 'see' a telephone log list (e.g. which numbers I called, call duration etc). Can they actually get their hands on my phone's data/files (internal memory or SD card). Or am I simply paranoid and that's totally irrelevant? For example, if we assume that the Data Connection (GPRS/3G/4G) is turned off, can the telephone provider or my company read my phone's data? I m just too concerned with everything being automated nowdays e.g. application syncing-up photos, documents (even configurations) without consent. Obviously, with google account verification being compulsory in latest Android versions, and with Google's ToRs, it's really unclear to me whether any personal data on my phone are still 'personal'.
Related
Hello XDA-Developers!
I had an idea this morning.
Current Transfer Tech:
Bluetooth - Requires the user of both devices to enable their bluetooth devices, then they have to go about pairing the devices to allow file tansfer (this is not always the case though). then the, shall we call him "sender" has to select a file and attempt to bluetooth the file to the, shall we say "reciever", who in turn has to accept the data and then the transfer starts.
Wifi - not used very often but files can be transferred through an app or through an ftp server etc from one device to another. this however requires a little, if not more, skill to complete and can be fustrating looking for ip addresses etc.
NFC - this is an emerging technology that is being implemented in more and more devices such as the Galaxy Nexus. This is a very efficient and fast way to transfer data from one NFC enabled device to another NFC enabled device, however like most of the android community, my phone does not have this capability.
My Idea:
This is just an idea and you may say what you like about it but i thought i would write it down here, the first place that came into my mind where i thought that someone could take this idea further.
Now my friend uses a blackberry, and i know that that word is almost taboo on this forum but hear me out. He uses his blackberry for a service called BBM (Blackberry Messenger), i am sure you are all familiar, and to add a friend of his so that he can contact them using the service, he simply uses his blackberrys camera to scan a 2D Barcode on his friends device and all his BBM Pin and other data is transfered through the phones camera so that they can communicate on the service.
I though that this could be used more on android devices. This could be used to transfer small files from one device to another such as contact information, websites (already a reality), even larger files such as word documents and other reletavely small documents. Now i know that these files cannot be displayed on a single 2D barcode but maybe they can be send using not one barode but a series, the barcodes could be in an animation on the device screen, showing one barcode after another all and the "reciever" could simply hold his device's camera over the animation and it could read the series of barcodes and then compile all of the data to create a single document.
Now i realise that this could be a silly idea as the ammount of data that can be transferred through a 2D barcode is not huge, al lot of barcodes would be needed to transfer a larger file than someones contact details.
Let me know what you think, and you are free to do what you want with my idea, i wont hold it against you
hazzahex
Hello
I know it's a little late (only 3 years lol), but I just wanted you to know that I've implemented a system similar to the one you describe
It was my college's final project
hazzahex said:
Hello XDA-Developers!
I had an idea this morning.
Current Transfer Tech:
Bluetooth - Requires the user of both devices to enable their bluetooth devices, then they have to go about pairing the devices to allow file tansfer (this is not always the case though). then the, shall we call him "sender" has to select a file and attempt to bluetooth the file to the, shall we say "reciever", who in turn has to accept the data and then the transfer starts.
Wifi - not used very often but files can be transferred through an app or through an ftp server etc from one device to another. this however requires a little, if not more, skill to complete and can be fustrating looking for ip addresses etc.
NFC - this is an emerging technology that is being implemented in more and more devices such as the Galaxy Nexus. This is a very efficient and fast way to transfer data from one NFC enabled device to another NFC enabled device, however like most of the android community, my phone does not have this capability.
My Idea:
This is just an idea and you may say what you like about it but i thought i would write it down here, the first place that came into my mind where i thought that someone could take this idea further.
Now my friend uses a blackberry, and i know that that word is almost taboo on this forum but hear me out. He uses his blackberry for a service called BBM (Blackberry Messenger), i am sure you are all familiar, and to add a friend of his so that he can contact them using the service, he simply uses his blackberrys camera to scan a 2D Barcode on his friends device and all his BBM Pin and other data is transfered through the phones camera so that they can communicate on the service.
I though that this could be used more on android devices. This could be used to transfer small files from one device to another such as contact information, websites (already a reality), even larger files such as word documents and other reletavely small documents. Now i know that these files cannot be displayed on a single 2D barcode but maybe they can be send using not one barode but a series, the barcodes could be in an animation on the device screen, showing one barcode after another all and the "reciever" could simply hold his device's camera over the animation and it could read the series of barcodes and then compile all of the data to create a single document.
Now i realise that this could be a silly idea as the ammount of data that can be transferred through a 2D barcode is not huge, al lot of barcodes would be needed to transfer a larger file than someones contact details.
Let me know what you think, and you are free to do what you want with my idea, i wont hold it against you
hazzahex
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've found other threads about a similar issue, but not for the SG III
The character limit in Android contacts notes field, THAT CAN BE EDITED DIRECTLY IN THE PHONE seems to be about 1000, (968 according to some users)
This also seems to be related only to SAMSUNG version of contacts.
Has anyone found a workaround to this limit?
The bad news are that if you sync with Outlook, you may end up with a loss of information.
I know, I know: 1000 is a lot, contacts is not a CRM program, etc, but any help will be really wellcome.
Regards.
Contacts notes field character limitations
This issue of a limited notes field in the contacts app - while it seems like such a small one to most people - greatly affects many of us who utilize the contacts in our Gmail accounts to store a great deal of information (usually, I have found, due to the kind of work we do). Frankly, for me the limitation is important enough that it has affected and continues to affect which phones and tablets I purchase.
There are only a few Android phones that do not have this limitation. Fortunately, the HTC One M8 and M9 don't have character limits in the notes field of the contacts app. (If you've stood in a store and copied and pasted many times over to test this, you'll want to know that there's a simple tell I've found - the name of the contacts app. If it's called "People," as is the case with the Samsung phones, so far everyone I've tested has had the limitation. If, instead, it's called "Contacts," as is the case with the HTC phones, then there's no limitation.
Some have theorized to me that the phone manufacturers include this limitation knowingly in order to keep phones from being overburdened by data. I have a difficult time believing this, partly because I have approximately 10,000 contacts, and in the accompanying notes fields I store everything from copies of correspondence to research to articles related to the contacts. I've never come close to any data storage space issues related to this particular issue. By the way, there's a bit of a work around with regard to this issue, though it's nowhere near helpful enough to change my feature priorities when looking for a new phone - something I do every six months or so. You can use a PC to do your major notes field creating and editing - and as long as you don't need to make any changes via your mobile device, you can get along OK. That is, while you can edit the notes field using unlimited characters space on your laptop, then read everything in the app on the phone, any editing on your mobile device done in notes which exceed the limit is limited by the character limitation.
I love my HTC, but I probably would be using a Samsung were it not for this issue. I've spent some considerable time - and many different times - on the phone with people at Samsung about this issue. Most of the time, after lengthy back and forth conversations (most people don't fully understand the issue initially; then, once they do, their usual responses range from some level of disinterest to judgments about why no one should ever need to reach much less exceed the maximum), I rarely can get anyone in either support or development to even agree to mention the issue to the development teams with which they at least share company benefits.
This issue is one of several that restrict the phones I buy. Unlike many (I'm guessing, based on the number of phones built with the relevant specs), a micro SD card is important to me. The importance to me of that one feature narrows the phones in my market considerably. In fact, based on very unscientific research, I believe my desire/need for a phone with a micro SD card and unlimited space in the notes field of the contacts app limits me currently to precisely two phones - the HTC One M9 (my current phone) and the Sony Xperia Z. As to high-end tablets, I own a Google Nexus 7 because it doesn't limit the notes field, but I just bought a Sony Xperia z2 tablet (because it also has a micro SD card).
Fortunately for me, both the HTC One M9 smartphone and the Sony Xperia z2 tablet are top-notch pieces of hardware. I used to own a Motorola Droid Razr M - when it included an SD card - because it, too, didn't limit the notes field. But it no longer has an SD card.
Surely there is some way for the phone manufacturers to get rid of what seems to be a spurious limitation. I know, for me, at least it would give me the opportunity to purchase from a less limited market.
Thanks
Thanks so much for your comment that I absolutly agree with.
My Contactc list is about 5000, with the same issues and use as yours.
I'm also commited to devices supporting external SD cards, it has saved my day a few times already
Just to be fair, I've to comment some "news" on the issue.
I'm actually on LG band (LG G-III to be more precise) and It's both a capable and excellent performer, with less limitations tan current Samsung devices (not to mention the iPhone-likes S6 family)
Regarding the notes field, LG (Or KitKat/Lollipop, not sure) has a different approach, though a bit cumbersome:
When you open in your device an existing contact from your Contacts list, in the Notes field (NOT created by default on new contacts, you have to manually add it) the number of characters SHOWN is limited to about 1000 characters.... this limit applies ONLY to how many characters are DISPLAYED.
BUT if you enter the edit mode inside the contact ... .¡THERE IS NO LIMITATION! NO LOSS OF INFORMATION EITHER IN THE PROCESS OF SYNCING. you read/edit the NOTES field in FULL with no limitations.
As soon as you "Save" or "exit" the edit mode, you are back to the restricted character display, but the "rest of the info" is there.
IN SHORT: The LIMIT is in the number of characters displayed NOT in the STORED info.
It may help you broaden your device buying options as it did with mines.
I don't know if this applies to other devices.
Give it a try if you like.
Regards.
Simpler problem for my s4 is not enough characters in the contact name field...only 17 characters doesn't cut it. Also curious why I don't have the plus/minus symbols for adding another number to a contact (say they had home/office/fax/etc). What did I turn off that affected the plus/minus symbol?
asdfasfd said:
Simpler problem for my s4 is not enough characters in the contact name field...only 17 characters doesn't cut it. Also curious why I don't have the plus/minus symbols for adding another number to a contact (say they had home/office/fax/etc). What did I turn off that affected the plus/minus symbol?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never heard of such a thing, it has to be a different issue. Maybe you should reset your device to get a fresh Contact manager start-up.
Sorry not being able to help.
Regards.
Hi all, I just received my new handset, a Sony Xperia Z3 Compact as an upgrade to my Samsung Galaxy S4. I'm not a noob per se, but these are noob questions I have, any answers for which I would be most grateful. My otherwise stellar google-fu has failed me these past two days and some clearer, direct advice and answers would be immensely helpful.
- A general question re: the Play Store. If I purchase a paid app, does it remain available to me to re-download and update forever after? Does it last between multiple/new devices? I want to buy Navigon Europe, but wanted to know if it's a once-only deal or remains available to me to download permanently.
- Contact syncing. On my past android phones, I've always somehow managed to import all my contacts from various online accts (eg. FB, GMail, etc). I have all my contacts (up-to-date) in Outlook on my PC and ideally want them, and only them, on my device contact list. I don't want the phone to synch anything with anything except my Outlook contacts but don't know what steps I can take to avoid that.
- Battery: I've had mixed messages about the first charge (currently in-progress at the time of writing!). Do Li-Ion batteries need to be charged for 16hrs or just until they're full?
- Converting the SIM Card: My S4 uses a MicroSIM, the Z3 Compact a NanoSIM. I heard they can be cut manually...is it safe to do that, or should I wait 3 days for TMobile (UK) to send me one?
I have two last questions that are more general advice than anything, but answers still appreciated!
- What apps/services are best to transfer my data over from my old handset to the new one? I can figure this out, but any recommendations from experience in doing the same would be welcome. I can figure out how to use them, just a general idea of apps/services to make sure I don't miss anything (texts, calendar, apps). Presumably I can download an app, *export* a file to my SD card, install the app and SD card on the new phone and "import" the file?
- This is a tough one...I have Barclays Mobile Banking app and kept my S4 stock since it apparently stopped working on rooted phones. I'd like to root my Z3 Compact but would have to stay stock for the Barclays app alone. Is there a good way to like trick the phone to believe it's not rooted, or stealth it, etc?
Any advice would be most gratefully received. I think I've answered the battery question but am still concerned about the rest. Many thanks in advance.
KingsGambit said:
Hi all, I just received my new handset, a Sony Xperia Z3 Compact as an upgrade to my Samsung Galaxy S4. I'm not a noob per se, but these are noob questions I have, any answers for which I would be most grateful. My otherwise stellar google-fu has failed me these past two days and some clearer, direct advice and answers would be immensely helpful.
- A general question re: the Play Store. If I purchase a paid app, does it remain available to me to re-download and update forever after? Does it last between multiple/new devices? I want to buy Navigon Europe, but wanted to know if it's a once-only deal or remains available to me to download permanently.
- Contact syncing. On my past android phones, I've always somehow managed to import all my contacts from various online accts (eg. FB, GMail, etc). I have all my contacts (up-to-date) in Outlook on my PC and ideally want them, and only them, on my device contact list. I don't want the phone to synch anything with anything except my Outlook contacts but don't know what steps I can take to avoid that.
- Battery: I've had mixed messages about the first charge (currently in-progress at the time of writing!). Do Li-Ion batteries need to be charged for 16hrs or just until they're full?
- Converting the SIM Card: My S4 uses a MicroSIM, the Z3 Compact a NanoSIM. I heard they can be cut manually...is it safe to do that, or should I wait 3 days for TMobile (UK) to send me one?
I have two last questions that are more general advice than anything, but answers still appreciated!
- What apps/services are best to transfer my data over from my old handset to the new one? I can figure this out, but any recommendations from experience in doing the same would be welcome. I can figure out how to use them, just a general idea of apps/services to make sure I don't miss anything (texts, calendar, apps). Presumably I can download an app, *export* a file to my SD card, install the app and SD card on the new phone and "import" the file?
- This is a tough one...I have Barclays Mobile Banking app and kept my S4 stock since it apparently stopped working on rooted phones. I'd like to root my Z3 Compact but would have to stay stock for the Barclays app alone. Is there a good way to like trick the phone to believe it's not rooted, or stealth it, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Paid apps are transferrable between devices, assuming you use the same Google account that it is linked to.
When you sign into Google (and your other accounts) it will ask if you want to Backup and Restore. Just leave it unchecked and then when finished importing Outlook contacts, you can go into your Google account and just make sure to only sync the options you're interested in by checking/unchecking whatever boxes you need.
I find a good way to transfer texts, call logs, apps, etc from device to device is by using an app like Go Backup. You were on the right path with the idea of backing up on the phone, transferring to PC, and switching it to a new phone. If you don't have access to a PC at the time, you can use something like Wifi File Explorer Pro to connect to it, assuming you have access to wifi or can wifi tether between the 2.
Cutting of the SIM is possible manually, but if you don't have access to a good SIM card cutter tool (obviously you don't have one in your possession, but any respectable repair shop or cell phone provider will have one. It only takes 5 seconds, but still there is a slight risk of damaging the card. It is best to get a new one. It is possible to cut with a sharp Exacto knife or something of the sort, but when going to nano, the margin of error is so small that I don't recommend.
As far as root and Barclay's, I don't believe it is an option. There have been attempts to bypass this restriction, but I believe that it has been without success. See:
http://repo.xposed.info/module/com.devadvance.rootcloak
Thank you for your helpful reply! I've moved most of my data over successfully, installed/copied most apps and setup most accounts. I did however ruin my MicroSIM in my attempts at converting it to Nano size. Have ordered a replacement but currently unable to call or text. Ah well!
I took the plunge and blew some money on the Play Store. I have the apps working now, and hope that they will remain available to me hereafter.
Thanks for the info on the Barclays App. I think I will skip rooting again *sigh* It's very annoying. There's a bunch of bloat I cannot freeze/quarantine, the ability to move apps to the SD card isn't available...all for one app If I found an APK of an old version, from back when it worked on a rooted phone, that might be an option?
Only issue I now have (apart from getting used to a few changes!) is with Email. On the S4, I set up my email as follows: Email: Forwarding Address - Incoming Server: BT Internet - Outgoing: Gmail (Set to send using my forwarding address). It worked fine. Now on the Z3C, I no longer have a box to enter my "Email address". Only "Username" and "Password". I can get my Emails from BT, can send via Gmail but it comes with "On behalf of..." in the sender field which is driving me mad! These are the little things that reallyget aggravating. Spent 2 hours already trying to work it out
Hello,
I've been looking for this but no success. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.
I'll explain the system for the complete picture:
We've built a system for a healthcare organization which uses a SMS server, if a person pushes a button on an (wifi) alarm unit in his/her room a SMS is sent to a Samsung Xcover2 phone, a specially written app 'catches' this special SMS before the stock android SMS app will get it, diplays the room that made the alarm and from there the user of the Samsung Xcover can make a one-touch operation to make a direct connection to this room so you can speak to that person in the room. From the phone the call can be closed and the alarm unit in the room will be reset.
So far so good. We deployed a pilot project and it works really well.
Except for the Samsung Xcover. We used them straight out of the box, set the settings (no google account, wifi is not used) but from there the user is able to change ANYTHING.....and they do; different sounds, fonts, backgrounds, they make pictures......basically they make a mess of it.
And since we use a Private GSM system with nano cells there's no internal number displayed on the screen so we use a personalised wallpaper with our company's logo and the internal number (they are also used as normal internal phones for in- an outbound communication). They keep changing the wallpaper so phones get 'lost' since they can't see the number anymore.
What I'm looking for is something that basically lets us control what the user can or can't do. Preferably with the stock ROM, rooting and loading a custom ROM is an option but time consuming.
Anyone with a suggestion??
Hi everyone! This is my first post, but I have used the search tool already without success. I am just a user, not developer and quite noob regarding mobiles and security.
Situation
1. I've got hacked, total control (photos, emails, camera, contacts, whatsapp, screen etc) of my unrooted android phone (xiaomi redmi note 7).
It was a targetted attack, no manual app installed, no unsafe 3rd party apps allowed. Attackers only had my gmail account (linked to android) and telephone number. I know them personally, and they leaked personal information to people at work (who enjoy it between them but won't help me at all).
No high consumption of battery/data. Just leeching information, launching some apps eventually, and few interactions with the screen minimizing etc.
2. I Installed antimalware (e.g malwarebytes), antivirus (avg, esset etc). No positive results. I also installed "Noroot firewall" to control programs accessing internet, nothing strange.
3. I've changed emails(new), SIM + Telephone. Got hacked again. I suspect my own wifi was compromised.
Additionally, added 2 step verification to emails, changed passwords, encrypted the device etc. I have found no IP from them in the emails log, nor alert from gmail. Only once a session from Linux device (not mine). I believe they have accessed through the device.
4. I want to restore the device somehow and avoid getting hacked again.
One of the problems I face is taht that now I'm not in the same circle of people from which I gathered most of the info on the leaked information, so I can't get to know if the actions I am taking got rid of the hack, besides some punctual actions they may do (launch app etc). So I have to act quite paranoid and do the most secure action.
Question
1. Any idea on how they managed to do that? how can I prevent it or prove it? a reset would get rid of any proof, but I kinda prefer it if it is once and for all.
2. A hard reset only formats one partition (user data), so if there is a trojan located in /system it would be pointless. With an unrooted device I can only get rid of /cache and /data.
Should I install another ROM?(my phone has always been unrooted) which one? (restoring the stack ROM would probably be pointless if the vulnerability is due to android...
3. Is there any other measure I could take?
I'd appreciate any help.
Thank you!