Users complain Palm is spying on them, but this isn’t something new

   A story was brought to my attention today that piqued my interest and sounded like something all smartphone users should be aware of. If you have not heard about this scandle before now, complaints have begun to crop up about Sprint’s new Palm Pre.  Users have been complaining that their phone is spying on them. And the conspiracy theorist are, for once, right. The Palm Pre, like other smartphones, does gather information on the user, such as geographic info (where you are); apps that you may download/uninstall; etc. And if you back up files on your phone info is also sent back to the company.

Palm did respond to the customers’ complaints and concerns by pointing back to their End-User License Agreement (better known as the fine print). Which does state that they will gather certain information from the users phone.

  The problem comes in when the user becomes aware of the consequences of all that information being sent out. Where is it going? Who has access to it? Why do they need it? Hence the virtual firestorm that the people at Palm have come under since the information about their info gathering has come out. The implications that your phone could be spying on you are so far reaching that the the age old “Big Brother” fear has even begun to crop up again. If we all stop to take a moment to think about all the information that our phones have access to including knowing exactly where we are at any time.

 Palm has also put out a statment telling everyone that the GPS option as well as other info gathering options can be turned off, but isn’t it a little late to tell the users? Should that not have been something to publish upfront so the user wouldn’t feel that their privacy had been invaded? It’s seems to me that it makes them look bad by pointing back to the toggle options only after concerns were raised.

I also find it interesting that the only one phone has been brought to the forefront, especially when most other phones do this same thing. Stay tuned for Part II tomorrow when I get more into the Big Brother phenomenon via our smartphones.