Latest Podcast



Featured Articles

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The mobile web and your personal information

James Rosewell writes:

The mobile techie community has known about mobile networks and indeed some handsets providing unique information about mobile devices and customers for a long time. Collin Mulliner, a graduate student at the Technische Universitat Berlin, has recently bought the issue to the attention of the public during a talk at the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver.

Information such as IMEI and Mobile Phone Number is passed to web servers accessed by a mobile device or Mobile Network Operator (MNO) proxy server in hidden fields called HTTP Headers. The amount of information, format and ultimately usability of the information varies between MNO and mobile device. Practically, the inconsistency of the information makes it of little practical use to web sites. The apparent random nature of the information provided indicates MNOs haven’t really thought through how they’re configuring their gateways and proxies.

The following table shows the HTTP Header (hidden fields) provided by a mobile request received at thefonecast.com yesterday. Notice the x-up-calling-line-id field that contains the mobile number of the requesting device. (We've removed the mobile number from this example). This particular request was provided via the ZXWAP Gateway from ZTE.

 

Header Field
Value
Connection
Keep-Alive
Via
ZXWAP GateWay,ZTE Technologies
Accept
text/html,text/css,multipart/mixed,application/java-archive, application/java, application/x-java-archive, text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor, application/vnd.oma.drm.message, application/vnd.oma.drm.content, application/vnd.oma.dd+xml, application/vnd.oma.drm.rights+xml, application/vnd.oma.drm.rights+wbxml, application/x-nokia-widget, */*
Accept-Charset
iso-8859-1, utf-8; q=0.7, *; q=0.7
 
Accept-Encoding
gzip, deflate, x-gzip, identity; q=0.9
 
Accept-Language
en;q=1.0,id;q=0.5,vi;q=0.5
Host
wap.socmobi.com
User-Agent
Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.2; U; Series60/3.1 Samsung/SGH-i450/DBGL3 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 ) AppleWebKit/413 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/413
x-up-calling-line-id
XXXXXXXXXX

The real point is that MNOs are seen to be taking liberties with customers personal information. There are many practical uses to providing this personal information “behind the scenes”. For example:

·    A web site that requests a telephone number can default the telephone number field to the mobile number provided by the mobile network reducing the amount of data the user needs to enter.

·    Multiple interactions can be related to one another without requiring explicit authentication.

On a darker note, once a malicious web site has a mobile number, the text message inbox would become the next target for spam.

Many people will be unhappy with this personal information being provided without consent. MNOs need to establish a clear and consistent policy around the dissemination of such information and ensure customers are in control of the personal information their mobile phone is giving out.

 

Print
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Rate this article:
No rating

Categories: Networks and operators, OpinionNumber of views: 7860

Tags: security opinion internet

Leave a comment

This form collects your name, email, IP address and content so that we can keep track of the comments placed on the website. For more info check our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use where you will get more info on where, how and why we store your data.
Add comment

Opinion Articles

How AI technology is transforming the smartphone experience

How AI technology is transforming the smartphone experience

From improved performance to personalized recommendations, AI is enhancing the functionality and usability of smartphones for users

By incorporating advanced algorithms and machine learning capabilities, AI can help to optimize a smartphone's performance, providing users with a faster, more efficient and user-friendly experience.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
Whatever happened to all my tech?

Whatever happened to all my tech?

Mark Bridge revisits his mobile technology reviews

Mark Bridge writes:

I've been taking a look back at the devices I've written about during the past few years. Some are still faithful companions, others... well, let's just say my faith was misplaced.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

Predictions for 2016: Network Function Virtualisation, 4G throttling and video calling

Mark Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016.

He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
Kapture review: the audio-recording wristband

Kapture review: the audio-recording wristband

A 'recording watch' that links to your smartphone

Mark Bridge writes:

The most memorable moments in life often go unrecorded. You don't have your camera in your hands. Your finger is still hovering over the 'pause' button on your audio recorder. Or you were simply too busy experiencing whatever was happening. It's all about the one that got away.

That's where Kapture can help.

Author: The Fonecast
4 Comments
Article rating: 4.0
Making mobile websites work better

Making mobile websites work better

Device detection and responsive design explained

Mark Bridge writes:

James Rosewell shows me a colourful roll of paper that's the width of an iPhone but well over three metres long. When I look closer, I can see it's a printed copy of the Wall Street Journal's mobile website. That's a lot of scrolling to do... and a pretty unfriendly user experience for anyone reading the news online. Why does it work so badly?

Author: The Fonecast
1 Comments
Article rating: 4.0
RSS
12345678910Last

Recent Podcasts

Mobile Monday London: Acceleration and Finance

Podcast - 21st February 2014

This podcast takes a look at the issue of finance for start-ups - and, in particular, at Accelerators for tech-based companies.

It's a discussion that was recorded at Mobile Monday London earlier this week with a panel including Jon Bradford of Techstars, Simon Devonshire from Telefonica's Wayra, Diane Perlman from Microsoft Ventures and Simon Cook of DFJ Esprit.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

From smartphones to security... and from wireless charging to connected machines

Podcast - 19th February 2014

We start this week's report with two new smartphones: a flagship Android device from LG and a dual-boot handset from Geeksphone.

We also talk about the health effects of mobile phones, a new mobile loyalty app, wireless charging, machine-to-machine connections, the purchase of Viber and a recent acquisition by Google.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

SMS security and text message spam

Podcast - 14th February 2014

In the past few months, the topics of security and privacy have gripped the mobile industry. The humble SMS text message has been subjected to particular attention, both on its own and in association with smartphone apps.

John Murtagh, CTO at text message specialist Anam Technologies, explains more about the risks involved with SMS, the challenges for mobile network operators and the solutions that can protect consumers.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

Big changes for Microsoft, Sony and Brightstar... plus the rest of the week's mobile industry news

Podcast - 12th February 2014

After catching up with last week's Microsoft announcement about new CEO Satya Nadella, we go on to talk about big changes for Brightstar and Sony as well.

There's also mobile payment news from MasterCard and Weve, some patent agreements, a warning about second-hand smartphone sales, a forecast of mobile data growth and a report about app developers.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

Searching for the UK's Most Innovative Mobile Company with the Smart UK Project

Podcast - 9th February 2014

The Smart UK project is an annual government-supported competition looking for the UK's Most Innovative Mobile Company.

A few days ago, all 20 companies on the competition shortlist gave a short presentation to the Smart UK panel of judges. Afterwards, Mark Bridge spoke to some of the entrants to discover exactly what they had to offer - and how they planned to disrupt the mobile industry.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
RSS
First7891012141516Last

Follow thefonecast.com

Twitter @TheFonecast RSS podcast feed
Find us on Facebook Subscribe free via iTunes

Archive Calendar

«April 2024»
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
25262728293031
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293012345

Archive

Terms Of Use | Privacy Statement