Complaint calls 'orphaned' phones 'defective', says carriers should disclose dangers of unclosed security holes
The American Civil Liberties Union today published a complaint (pdf) it filed with the Federal Trade Commission, seeking an investigation into the major U.S. carriers' practice of updating -- or, more to the point, not regularly updating -- the smartphones that they sell for security reasons. "Android smartphones," the 16-page complaint reads, " that do not receive regular, prompt security updates are defective and unreasonably dangerous."
Chris Soghoian, principal technologist and senior policy analyst for the ACLU on speech, privacy and technology, followed up in a blog post, explaining:
Google’s Android operating system now has more than 75% of the smartphone market, yet the majority of these devices are running software that is out of date, often with known, exploitable security vulnerabilities that have not been patched. For consumers running these devices, there is no legitimate software upgrade path.
At issue is the process in which the process works. Google provides the Android code -- including updates for bugs and security fixes -- but it's up to the hardware manufacturers to implement any changes, and the carriers to approve and ultimately get those changes pushed out. It's a lengthy, messy process that nobody has seemed able to improve with any real effect -- at least not to the satisfaction of the ACLU, or a minority but vocal faction of the buying public.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Gd7Jves0CTE/story01.htm
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