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Ofcom says mobile contracts should ditch inflation-related price rises

Ofcom says mobile contracts should ditch inflation-related price rises

UK telecoms regulator Ofcom wants to ban inflation-related rises in phone and broadband contracts. Instead, it says any potential mid-contract price rises should be set out in pounds and pence.
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Global smartphone market is set for recovery, says new forecast

A new forecast from research specialists Canalys shows the smartphone market is set to recover next year. Worldwide shipments declined by 12% last year but that decline is expected to slow to 5% this year.
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Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

New Hutchison/Vodafone network would be biggest UK operator

Vodafone Group plc and CK Hutchison Group Telecom Holdings Limited have agreed to combine their UK telecommunication businesses, respectively Vodafone UK and Three UK. The merger will create a large new network operator to compete with Virgin Media O2 and EE.
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UK mobile payment service Paym to close in March 2023

UK mobile payment service Paym will close on 7th March 2023. The service, which allowed users to make and receive payments using their mobile phone numbers, was launched in 2014.
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Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Which? seeks payout for Samsung and Apple smartphone owners

Consumer protection organisation Which? has been given permission by the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal to represent Apple and Samsung smartphone buyers in a legal case against chip manufacturer Qualcomm.
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Opinion Articles

Monday, November 15, 2010

How we could use mobile technology to destroy personal privacy

Mark Bridge writes:

Head to any major city, look around and you’ll see tourists recording their visit. Some have cameras, some have phones, some are shooting video, some may even be writing postcards.

It’s the same kind of scene when you go to a concert. The performer on stage will be looking at a sea of blue faces, all illuminated by their smartphones. This, I reckon, could be the beginning of the end of privacy.

Once upon a time you needed to go home and upload your photos, video and audio to share them. Not any more. Phones can upload straight to Facebook and Flickr, while video sharing from Bambuser and Qik – along with audio sharing from the likes of iPadio – can put your life online almost instantly. However, there’s a catch. This mobile technology isn’t just sharing a single life. It’s sharing a little piece of everyone you encounter.

And d’you know what?  Most of us don’t care. We don’t care because we’re told this is normal. Google photographs our houses. They make the valid point that it’s public data, that anyone can photograph your home. It’s what the police say on TV’s Road Wars pretty much every week. “Ignore the camera, it’s a public place, they’re allowed to film us”. Facebook Places lets advertisers know where I am. I can opt out, so where’s the big deal?

The big deal comes when you start adding this together. The big deal comes when everyone does this.

Let’s say I have a mobile phone with unlimited UK calls. That could let me stream everything I say to the internet. Everything. And everything anyone says near me. An unlimited data bundle or a high enough allowance would let me do the same with images. A video camera on my glasses – or on my Bluetooth earpiece – and everyone I meet gets broadcast on the internet. Never mind “your calls are being recorded for training purposes”. Your conversation is being recorded simply because I can. Add some face recognition software – something like Google Goggles – and I’m tagging or mapping everyone I meet. You can opt out of online services but, unless you opt out of meeting people, you’ll still be all over the internet.

Not a particularly cheery picture, some would say. I’m inclined to agree. Fortunately, not unlike the aliens in HG Wells War of the Worlds dying after catching a cold, salvation for humanity may come from an unlikely direction. Most mobile phone batteries can’t currently handle more than a couple of hours of streaming. And even when they can, we just need to wear sunglasses to avoid being recognised. Or perhaps we’d avoid online embarrassment by suffering a little real-world embarrassment and wearing a clown’s nose. That would fool the face recognition software… and it might also make the world seem a much friendlier place!

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Recent Podcasts

A podcast packed with smartphones galore... from Samsung, Sony, Microsoft and Motorola

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We review the CAT B100 rugged mobile phone

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Microsoft cuts its mobile staff, Apple finds a new partner and Yahoo! makes an acquisition

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Florent Stroppa of OnMobile talks about the state of the mobile telecom industry, from network deals to smart wearables

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National security, phones for children, a new UK mobile network and a change of name

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This week's mobile industry podcast begins with a quick look at the UK government's emergency legislation affecting fixed-line, mobile phone and broadband traffic.

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