Phone Push Notifications: A Double-Edged Sword for User Privacy and Law Enforcement
Phone Push Notifications: A Double-Edged Sword for User Privacy and Law Enforcement
Those little popups may reveal location, device details, IP address, and more
Summary:
- US courts have received over 130 requests from law enforcement to access push notification data from phones, reported the Washington Post.
- This data can reveal a user's location, device details, IP address, and more, even if they use encrypted messaging apps.
- This raises concerns about privacy, as prosecutors and foreign governments could potentially access this data for various reasons.
- While Apple and Google are promising more transparency regarding data requests, security experts highlight the potential for abuse by governments and marketing organizations.
Key Points:
- Push notification metadata includes information like the app receiving the notification, timestamp, and network details.
- This data is not encrypted and can be used to track user movements and activity.
- Law enforcement can use this data for investigations, but it also raises concerns about potential misuse by other parties.
- Experts recommend increased awareness about the information users share through push notifications and the potential privacy risks involved.
Why is this connected to the Internet? Aren't the notifications coming directly from the app, why do they need to be connected to a server?
If every app on your phone was constantly running and asking the server for new messages, it would drain a lot of battery. That's why phones instead use a single app that asks a notification server if any new notifications are there. The way it works is if you e.g. get a WhatsApp message, the WhatsApp server tells the notification server that you have a new message, then when the notification app asks that server for new messages, the server will tell it that there's a new WhatsApp notification. Then the notification app wakes up WhatsApp and tells it there's a new notification, then WhatsApp checks for new messages and shows you the notification.
Most apps use Apple's system (whatever it's called) on iOS or Google's Firebase on Android for that. There are also apps that let you use the open standard UnifiedPush, which let's you use any notification app or server you want.
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Time to put pressure on Apple and Google to encrypt these E2E.
Time to put pressure on Apple to allow other push providers and Google to open push providers interface.
Even better, to make other systems than iOS and Android being able to exist.
At this point I’m so irritated that I’ve had it with all the big tech companies and their proprietary horse shit, break up Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, ISPs, and all the ones I’m forgetting, turn the service side of them into public utilities like they should be. Fuck em
UnifiedPush and Linux mobile to the rescue?
Unrelated but does android support that thing where notifications can be encrypted and decryined on device, IE getting a message from signal and having it decrypted in device so you get the actual message and not just "new message" in the notification box
Its not about the content of the messages, which csn indeed be encrypted but instead about the metadata of the notifications.
Signal doesn't encrypt notifications from what I understand. It uses Google/Apples notification system like everything else. But the notification only says "Hey, wake up!". Then the Signal app goes and retrieves the message from Signal's servers. That retrieval will be encrypted, but it's outside the push notification system at the point.