this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2024
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170
Phone Push Notifications: A Double-Edged Sword for User Privacy and Law Enforcement (www.theregister.com)
submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.
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[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago (12 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Push notifications all go through Google/Apple systems. The apps backend systems sent the notifications to them, who push them to your phone.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Not all. Local notifications are thing. Most do go through soming like FCM though

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Not all notifications go through FCM but all push notifications do as far as I'm aware - which is what the previous comment and the post title are talking about.

It is, in fact, worrying for privacy implications on the one hand and a real monopolizing factor on the other since if you wish to deliver an app which needs to implement such notifications you're using Google's service or constantly drain the user's battery.

There's UnifiedPush which tries to provide an open alternative but so far unfortunately still sees very little adoption.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Yeah, that's fair. Push notifications by definition come via the internet. Push and local notifications are indistinguishable to the user

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