Remote access to GPS, Cam and Mic

Apps & Core Settings
1

Hello,

French lawmakers passed a bill to allow law enforcement to access GPS, Cam and mic remotely under very vague assumptions.

As far as I understand, this kind of backdoor could be hardware (but this ship has sailed for nearly every phone on the market right now) or software, via the OS of the phone.

How clear are we on this ? Should I stop updating iodé to keep my privacy ? How will iodé team react to LEA asking them to implement such a backdoor ? How can we be certain that we will be warned of any such demand ? How can we know it did not already happen ?

Source (french) : https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2023/07/05/l-activation-a-distance-des-telephones-mouchards-adoptee-par-l-assemblee-nationale_6180713_3224.html

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2

No

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3

but its a good question
is iode, as a french company, obliged to do so? to implement that shit?

4

I have no more information than anyone else, but I think it is very unlikely that they could ask anything to smartphone/OS providers. This would be a major privacy damage and security breach.

My opinion is just that now, the law permits them to do that, and use proofs obtained by these means for legal actions. How they will do that is another question. There is no reason to fear, in my opinion, especially when using custom roms with open source code.

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5

I feel it’s espeially custom ROM that would be monitored by LEA, and the privacy oriented ones even more so.

I wonder how we, users, could ensure the OS was not bugged by LEA, as they would certainly forbid you to inform us.

6

Yes. Until further notice. It‘s a myth anyway that things getting better all the time.

7

That is complete nonsense. Newer builds of IodéOS are better than older ones. And they are likely to be better not worse in terms of privacy.

The new French law is not a reason not to install updates

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8

I am sorry to say so, but that is really some bad advice.

Computers are very complex systems. Sometimes such complex systems have “funny quirks” also known as security issues. Security issues get found and fixed all the time. The main way for state agents and hacker kiddies alike to get into your computer/mobile phone is for them to find some old and known security issue unfixed…
So. Stay ahead of the hackers. Keep your systems up to date.

There is no privacy without security.

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9

So, what happened in the meantime? Is this backdoor already installed in iodé?

10

Of course it’s not. Feel free to look at the source code - which is all freely available in GitHub - and check for yourself.

11

Bonsoir,

En cas d’interpellation, les autorités peuvent imposer au propriétaire de smartphone de le déverrouiller sur simple demande.

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12

Can you ask in English, please

13

Good evening,

In the event of an arrest, the authorities may require the owner of the smartphone to unlock it on request.

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15

How am I supposed to take hat?

  1. Is this law not in force?
  2. Could iodé resist until now?
  3. When the backdoor will come (and kill privacy, a human right)?

Sorry, my skills are not good enough to check the source code.

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16

I don’t know

They have: there is no ‘back door’ in the IodeOS code

Probably never