It seems, the newer phones from this taiwanese manufacturer seem to suffer
from an immense security leak that allows spying on your personal data you
probably want to know safe and sound by any means. It seems, HTC has a
program package installed that allows gathering information out of your…

…phones storage. The program is called HTCLogger.apk and allows access to numerous information such as your actual GPS position, your last written SMS, your phone book, your phone’s information, to make it short: ALMOST EVERYTHING!

What does it need? As trivial as it sounds: The spying application that wants to send out the information only needs the followinf privilege: android.permission.INTERNET

And be honest: Who doesn’t have applications that requested privileges to connect to the internet? There are many applications that require this privilege in order to work properly.

Sure, you can say now: I disallow my phone to connect to the internet but what’s the deal with a smartphone then? Most modern phones have many apps that work only with an internet connection! If you disconnect your phone from the web then you also render your apps rather useless!

While HTC-Users (or Android-Users in common) started a real Apple-Bashing on the iPhone and its GPS-Position data collecting, it seems it happes to themselves right now but with much more impact.

I am an Apple user and using my iPhone for a mere 2 years now. In this time I’ve never received any unsolicited  mail, SMS or phone call due to my logged GPS data. And if Apple really needs to make a movement profile of me, who cares. Okay, they know of me being in Bern (city) and bern-Bümpliz, sometimes in Interlaken and twice a year being in Munich. Big deal! Nothing I wouldn’t probably write on my blog or on other social media also!

But when it comes to SMS, Mails and the like that is open for everyone due to a slutty software design such as the mentionned HTCLogger.apk that EVEN comes with a HELP-Function (You gotta get this! Even if you’re unfamiliar with hacking and the like, HTC makes it easy for you to gather the required information!!!) then my question simply is: “What’s safer? An iPhone with some mere data collecting or a HTC phone that virtually gives access to ALL my private data stored on the phone?”

To say it in a better imaginable way: “It’s like putting your home’s key under the doormat and, if found, you hope it won’t be used!”

And NO, it’s NOT Google to blame for this as Android is just the OS the phone uses. It’s the software written for the OS that can bring up SUCH immense security holes. In this case, HTC has smuddled Android’s good name due to their rather inept programming tech.

and NO, there’s no need to throw away your Samsung Galaxy S(2) for any reason. These phones are not affected anyways. No HTC and Android means at least no uncontrolled spreading of your personal data. iPhone means no access to your personal data except Apple (and as stated before: I did not get unsolicited mails, calls or SMS yet from them based upon my usage profile!)

So before any smartphone user starts bashing Android or iOS again, he or she should think about what he or she’s using. If he or she uses a HTC phone, then the first concern should better be: HOW on earth am I protecting MY personal data before I blame Google or Apple for collecting information!

For heaven’s sake, HTC, you’d better fix this security-hole ASAP or your next fiscal quarter may look very dark!

And for all you HTC users: You’d better doublecheck your new installed apps for which permissions they’re demanding and recheck all your installed apps’ permissions to avoid unexpected results or probably the next humiliation in the form of pictures of you and a drunken girl (which is for sure not your dearest) in the bar from last weekend on any social media such as facebook or other networks…