Cell Phone FLASHLIGHT APPS Are Malware

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Readers, if you have the Flashlight App installed on your smart phone, your phone is infected with malware according to Snoopwall’s CEO Gary Miliefsky.

There are 10 flashlight apps that smart phone users can access and install. Those Trojan horse malware packages send your personal information to the following countries: China, India, and Russia. Think cybercrime snooping around all my information with easy access.

Please watch the video below and take corrective actions immediately, if not sooner! Miliefsky suggests getting a factory reset on your smart phone, but before you do that, you’d better backup your information, as it all will be erased by the factory reset, which is the only way to get rid of that flashlight malware.

Over 500 million smart phone users are infected! Disinfect and go to www.Snoopwall.com for more information.

One more reason, in my opinion, for everyone to question ALL smart technologies, especially Smart Meters!

This has been known about for awhile, and discussed here at least once.

And it's really not malware, since when you install it, it tells you exactly what permissions it wants, which you then must agree to in order to complete the installation....It's more a case of users being ignorant as to what they're actually doing, and companies taking advantage of that...

a reply to: defiythelie

I did a thread about a year ago on this exact topic.
Yet, it needs to done weekly as no one seems to notice or care much.

We discussed it last year. The top 10 apps were listed as well.

Yeah I think I remember this one at least three times now on ATS, old news no doubt.

Seriously, you download a flashlight app and it says it need a crap ton of permissions, and you continue? Nope

Just checked . It was a story originating on Oct 1st 2014 from Cyberdefensemag(?) I think.

Also an article Oct 14th and again in Dec. last year.

originally posted by: caterpillage
Yeah I think I remember this one at least three times now on ATS, old news no doubt.

Seriously, you download a flashlight app and it says it need a crap ton of permissions, and you continue? Nope

Like everything else in our life that we buy or use, the devil is in the details.

I happened to read the several pages of fine print that virtually nobody takes the time to read. So, in this area, we allow ourselves to be conned. A question to ask yourself do we deserve such treatment?
Remember the old saying, "Buyer beware?"

a reply to: defiythelie

Malware is a bit misleading. They're PUPs at worst. Most of these apps have been updated since the controversy, and have removed excess permissions. But this isn't just flashlight apps, it's any niche of apps on the store that are easy to make and popular. Flashlights, TV remotes, FM radios, launchers, etc. You'll find a few potentially unwanted apps in all of these categories.

I had these smartphones for 1-2month and when ever i tried to download and instal pretty much any programs they asked me to give them pretty much all the rights over my phone and information and the google shyt was on my phone and i could not get rid of it anyway, so i sold it away and now i am more happier with my normal phone, i recommend others to do the same, smartphones think users are stupid

More exaggeration and shifting the blame away from user ignorance. And what do smart meters have to do with anything?
Frankly unless you have a background in the relevant technologies people should put up and shut up. The nonsense around smart meters is particularly stupid. I've seen Americans in particular start hyperventilating every time something new comes along most of them don't even understand and the hysteria spreads.

GM foods - whine whine bitch bitch cry.
Smart meters - whine whine bitch bitch cry.
Facebook - whine whine bitch bitch cry.
Smartwatches - whine whine... etc. etc...

Looking at the commentary on the Internet in general I can only deduce that the world is full of paranoid hypochondriacs that think everyone and everything is out to get them. It's ironic these same people are happily using the very same technologies their historical peers equally whined about killing them and destroying their quality of life.

originally posted by: romilo
I had these smartphones for 1-2month and when ever i tried to download and instal pretty much any programs they asked me to give them pretty much all the rights over my phone and information and the google shyt was on my phone and i could not get rid of it anyway, so i sold it away and now i am more happier with my normal phone, i recommend others to do the same, smartphones think users are stupid

There's nothing wrong with a smartphone if you know what you're doing. Same as there isn't with crap like Facebook, as long as you understand how it works and what happens to the information you can use it to your advantage. For instance on Facebook, just make sure that the version of you portrayed on there is what you want everyone to think. It's common sense really.
If you worry about your phone tracking you then leave it at home when you're breaking the law, if you're not then what the hell do you care? You really think someone at Google or the NSA is going to monitor YOUR movements for no reason at all? It's aggregated data used to provide you with services and Google/etc with targeted advertising data.
Don't want to see ads? Install AdAway which modifies your hosts file to prevent the phone contacting known advertising servers.

It's funny that literally 100s of millions of people all around the world manage to get along quite fine without being whisked away by black helicopters or having their bank account hacked every five minutes just because they have a phone.

Any easy to make app is notorious for spyware. Honestly, if you care about these things what you should do is learn how to do it yourself. There are even tutorials for a lot of the basic ones that will walk you through it. It's just software, a set of instructions... if you write it yourself, you know what's in it.

a reply to: AgentSmith

It's more about having control over the data you generate. It is a commodity that gets tracked and sold, and it belongs to you. Them taking your data and doing whatever they want with it is a breach of your rights.

a reply to: defiythelie

This came up last October in this thread.

People freak out about 'malware' and don't realise that a flashlight needs permission to work. It isn't using the camera to take pictures, it needs to have access to the flash. Of course, some apps take the piss in a big way and require permission to everything but your front door key and birth certificate.

Right click on this to see the difference in permissions:

originally posted by: Aazadan
It's more about having control over the data you generate. It is a commodity that gets tracked and sold, and it belongs to you. Them taking your data and doing whatever they want with it is a breach of your rights.

I get that, but to be fair you agree to these things when you sign up. You can also disable things like location history, search history, etc if you choose to. It is also possible to root the phone and use modules to block certain activities by any app, so as long as you know what you are doing you can take total control of everything.
You can also create an account just for using the phone and not use it for anything personal or sensitive. There are a lot of options depending on your own requirements that don't have to resort to the knee-jerk reaction of not having the phone.

I guess some of it is a lot down to principles, fact is unless you're actually up to no good there is nothing to worry about - but regardless in principle it just shouldn't happen if you don't want it to. I certainly do not subscribe to the old 'nothing to hide nothing to fear' though in general it is usually true.

a reply to: caterpillage

That's always been my approach to any app. The permissions themselves should be a dead giveaway. You install something as simple as a flashlight, just simply turning on a light, but it needs to access your contacts, wifi, pictures, email and God knows what else? Data Mining!!

Yes i think nasa and google and their buddies in cia and other mercenary agencies use these smartphones and facebooks against the users, not to solve crime tho