It Seemed Like a Popular Chat App. It's Secretly a Spy Tool.

[Sanders]

I always figure they are all spying on me. Even though Siri says "No" if I ask if it is spying on me, I don't believe it.

WASHINGTON — It is billed as an easy and secure way to chat by video or text message with friends and family, even in a country that has restricted popular messaging services like WhatsApp and Skype.

But the service, ToTok, is actually a spying tool, according to U.S. officials familiar with a classified intelligence assessment and a New York Times investigation into the app and its developers. It is used by the government of the United Arab Emirates to try to track every conversation, movement, relationship, appointment, sound and image of those who install it on their phones.

ToTok, introduced only months ago, was downloaded millions of times from the Apple and Google app stores by users throughout the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. While the majority of its users are in the Emirates, ToTok surged to become one of the most downloaded social apps in the U.S. last week, according to app rankings and App Annie, a research firm.

ToTok amounts to the latest escalation in a digital arms race among wealthy authoritarian governments, interviews with current and former U.S. foreign officials and a forensic investigation showed. The governments are pursuing more effective and convenient methods to spy on foreign adversaries, criminal and terrorist networks, journalists and critics — efforts that have ensnared people all over the world in their surveillance nets.

Persian Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Qatar previously turned to private firms — including Israeli and U.S. contractors — to hack rivals and, increasingly, their own citizens. The development of ToTok, experts said, showed that the governments can cut out the intermediary to spy directly on their targets, who voluntarily, if unwittingly, hand over their information.

https://news.yahoo.com/seemed-popula...n0Ee_3p8kWw_jM

[44044]

Back in the day when people were saying that the .gov

was going to 'chip' US all...

Well they got US to do it for them...and we pay for it

Thanks to the cell phone...

[Travish]

The fed’s are pissed. Pissed they didn’t get it first.

[ErikD]

There is only one reasonably secure, encrypted communication app available to civilians: Signal.

[aviator]

And my daughter complains that she gets adds about stuff she has talked about.

Turn the darned microphone off for all those applications on your phone, they are listening and using keywords for targeting adds.

[Sanders]

Originally Posted by aviator

And my daughter complains that she gets adds about stuff she has talked about.

Turn the darned microphone off for all those applications on your phone, they are listening and using keywords for targeting adds.

Youtube is really good for that. Even though I have the microphone "turned off", it never really is. How could it be if "Siri" can still respond to you?

So, if you want privacy, make sure your cell/smart phones and tablets are in a different room from your conversation - preferably in a metal box.

Plus, if you are going to engage in what some would call "subversive" conversations, the same applies. Just pulling out the batteries doesn't necessarily guarantee privacy, either.

[lastlaugh]

Originally Posted by ErikD

There is only one reasonably secure, encrypted communication app available to civilians: Signal.

Signal is not secure either. Nation states have no problem reading your messages, regardless of how you send them