Sony Xperia phones come with Baidu spyware?

https://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xperia-Z-ZL-ZR/Unknown-folder-baidu-is-created-on-starting-phone-each-time/td-p/819877/page/5?sl=y&sso_no_log=y

by sleepyhead • 12 years ago

70 64 12 years ago

talk.sonymobile.com

eklavya4• 12 years ago

OMG I saw that folder a while back on my phone and ignored it thinking some sony app uses it and it's included in case I set the phone language to Chinese. But I never thought a Japanese company would be sending anything back to a Chinese IP address!

kalleboo• 12 years ago

I imagine the baidu folder is set up due to baidu search or social network integration.

The connections to IP addresses have been seen on other phones so it's probably some software people have installed http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2509815

sleepyhead7• 12 years ago

I am not so concerned about the folder itself but my phone now has a constant connection to an IP address in Beijing which I am not too happy about.

SovietPriest3• 12 years ago

What about constant connections to Google servers aka NSA? That doesn't concern you too?

polack3• 12 years ago

Just unpacked my Sony Z3 compact, haven't installed a single app and its connecting to China... Needless to say, I will never use this phone or any other Sony product ever again.

hkmurakami5• 12 years ago

I'm willing to give SCEI (the Playstation unit) the benefit of the doubt still (despite their hacking scandal), but I'm surely done with Sony Mobile devices for sure.

dingaling• 12 years ago

Needless to say, I will never use this phone

No Cyanogenmod ROMs for the Z3 series yet unfortunately so it looks like a return is your only real option.

http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Devices#vendor=%22Sony%22;type...

rwallace• 12 years ago

Without taking a position on this particular case, I must observe that if you are going to boycott every company that has done something that allows some government to spy on customers, your list of vendors will be down to... I was going to say your local grocery shop, but thinking about it, they probably have a credit card reader, and I'd be astonished if there weren't at least some cases of governments tracking people via credit card purchases.

valevk• 12 years ago

If you are on your phone, open the site in Desktop mode.

samdroid• 12 years ago

...Otherwise you will be made sign up through a LONG and HORRIBLE sign up process :O

tdsamardzhiev• 12 years ago

  To sketch the magnitude of the problem: potentially, the Chinese governmnet can:
  ...
  Prevent your device from entering sleep mode
  ...

Oh well I'm screwed.

zyx321• 12 years ago

Well, that means the screen will not time out, and thus will not ask for a password. Baidu has location access too, so there's an obvious attack vector in disabling the screen time-out before sweeping in and confiscating the device.

It's the least menacing item on that list, but that doesn't mean it's completely harmless.

hkmurakami5• 12 years ago

I came in thinking that this was going to be about the Baidu IME Japanese language input (which caused quite a stir earlier this year iirc, for the same kind of logging and tracking -- though I think the information wasn't as extensive as this). Lo and behold, it's much worse than that.

Wasn't it Sony that installed some kind of spyware in its VAIO machines or its anti-piracy SW or something along those lines? When will they ever learn? And there will likely never be an explanation for what they were trying to do here.

They are already in a precarious position in the smartphone market with most of their sales coming from Japan (and Sony Ericsson becoming just Sony Mobile back in 2012). What were they going to do if shit really hit the fan and this went to mass media in Japan as the "Chinese spyware phone" given the tension between the two countries, especially given Japanese QE over the last 1.5+ years? Consumer sentiment is pretty irrational. I can easily see a situation where they get labeled as a "traitorous company" and a boycott starts, at least vs their mobile division. Shortsightedness at its finest.

I want to root for this company so badly yet every few years they do boneheaded things like this and make me utterly despise their stupidity.

edit: On further thought I bet this is created by some pre-installed default Baidu app that Sony QA didn't vet properly or didn't give a damn about. Or maybe QA found the folder + the connection to China, but it was quashed by management for "strategic reasons". The latter seems more likely, since the engineers I know at Sony (at least in SCEI) are pretty damn good.

johnchristopher• 12 years ago

I believe you are referring to the Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal [0]

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootki...

hkmurakami5• 12 years ago

That's the one. Thx!

Rootkit, Playstation Network hack, Baidu spyware, ... I want to believe in Sony, and yet, this. :(

mappu• 12 years ago

I don't think it has anything to do with Sony, the folder is created by lots of apps - wechat, MIUI themes. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=55033304&post... suggests it's also created by ES File Explorer.

eklavya4• 12 years ago

It's happening for stock out of the box configs too. It has everything to do with sony.

silviorelli• 12 years ago

This is the folder I found in my Xperia Z, latest stock firmware (Android 4.4.4) installed after a full wipe about a month ago. Files are mostly empty. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ds1iyk5vffexrlx/baidu.zip.zip?dl=0

jdalgetty• 12 years ago

This makes me sad, I just bought the Z3c.

keletappi• 12 years ago

Reading the thread from the startt, it seems that Baidu is used for pushing content to MyXperia.

MyXperia is their service similar to let you can remotely track or lock your device. My guess is they are using Baidu's push service to send the commands to device.

So I'd say this is a poor choice of service provider from Sony - especially for non-Chinese versions - but _probably_ harmless.

fulafel2• 12 years ago

At best, as harmless as Google's command & control channel to Android devices (=not very).

voltagex_2• 12 years ago

Has anyone reversed com.sonymobile.mx.android.apk yet?

philtar• 12 years ago

I will if anyone can put the link up somewhere.

voltagex_2• 12 years ago

https://mega.co.nz/#!bcxjxKgA!_vRRYgQbzmGxTXkAnLRG2DNuR9HhNS... is a UK Z3 firmware, I'm working on extracting it with 7zip and unyaffs. Unless someone wants to adb pull from their own Z series device.

Zeebrommer• 12 years ago

If I were to buy a new Sony phone, is there a way to stop this from happening?

hkmurakami5• 12 years ago

If it's the phone (Z3?) in question, it seems that an update that purges this is incoming (though I wouldn't trust it until we have reports proving that this is the case).

throwawayaway2• 12 years ago

Their music arm is much much more morally elastic:

https://www.scribd.com/doc/22131876/Underground-Resistance-v...

pacific• 12 years ago

My girlfriend recently bought an Xperia and a couple weeks later she received a notice from google that someone was blocked when trying to log into her gmail account from China. I wonder if there could be a connection.

theintern• 12 years ago

It's extremely unlikely that the two are related. Account access attempts from Chinese IP addresses are common for almost everyone on Gmail.

accurrent2• 12 years ago

libbd_push.so is Baidu's push notification service. Admittedly the fact they have to use native libs is a bit shady however if you have a large chinese userbase then GCM isnt really an option.

izacus• 12 years ago

Can anyone explain why Chinese software like this is branded "spyware", while Google Play and iCloud services aren't? Since it seems the difference is just in the country that spys on me?

accurrent2• 12 years ago

Just american idiots round here, Ive prototyped apps using baidu push service (the so called "spyware"). Its just another type of gcm except based in china. GCM servers are at best unreliable in china thanks to censorship.

eklavya4• 12 years ago

Or maybe as an Indian I am concerned why my phone has to use Baidu at all, when I am not using any service it provides and the fact that my data is being sent to China without my knowledge?

funkyy2• 12 years ago

Or maybe people dont want to be spied on by services from basically web un-regulated countries?

sleepyhead7• 12 years ago

OP here. European living in Asia. Any service that is tracking me without my consent is spyware. Regardless of the definition I am far more concern with being tracked by some Chinese company compared to a German company. So origin is important here.

funkyy2• 12 years ago

There is a bit more transparency when it comes to US and EU servers.

Issue with Chinese servers is that whole infrastructure is owned by government so they can track all info going through it without limits.

In US this is much more complicated.

Also since some time spy agencies around world were warning about those user informations sent back to China. They have their reasons but they wont reveal exactly what this is about since this would cause political cooling with China relations. Seems like something serious is going on there with all this data.

spacemanmatt3• 12 years ago

I don't find the distinctions between Chinese and U.S. national governments credible in this post-Snowden era.

r0h1n• 12 years ago

Probably because Baidu doesn't make Xperia phones, unlike Google and Apple which power Android & iOS respectively?

astrange• 12 years ago

So you're against using cloud providers? Apps use push notification services through Amazon or Microsoft all the time.

sleepyhead7• 12 years ago

I see your point. However there are many differences. For iOS and Android I have chosen those systems and thus to a certain degree accepted connections to Apple and Google. I have not however chosen to do anything with Baidu. Regardless I think anything that tracks you is spyware unless I have given it my consent to do so.

SovietPriest3• 12 years ago

Funny so many people call this "spyware" while using smartphones with Google apps/services that feed your data to the NSA. Priorities, people?

sleepyhead7• 12 years ago

The priority is to end companies spying. I agree that Google and NSA is a huge issue too, and that debate has been going on for a long time.

0942v8653• 12 years ago

Samsung Android phones come with Google spyware?

Apple iPhone phones come with Apple iCloud spyware? Google search spyware? Yahoo search spyware? Bing search spyware?

Microsoft Windows Phone phones come with Microsoft spyware?

It's the same stuff. At least China tells people what they do, instead of leaving people with uncertainty and doubt.

sleepyhead7• 12 years ago

If you buy a phone from Apple it is implied that it will make connections to Apple. To a certain degree off course. However I have not bought a Baidu phone and have not given my consent to be tracked.

What is wrong with you people who nitpick in this thread. It is an invasion of privacy and is being done without my consent. That is the important issue here.

Bossman• 12 years ago

The worst part is that it starts the service and connects to China without your consent or making you aware of it. At least I can turn off Google sync without any issues.

abhishekmdb• 12 years ago

Indepth analysis : Is Sony’s Xperia smartphone sending back data to China through ‘Baidu’ folder backdoor? http://www.techworm.net/2014/10/sonys-xperia-baidu-folder-au...

nyboylx• 12 years ago

I'm the owner of the new Sony Z3 and even before this new Model , I had the same Baidu folder in my older Sony Xperia S. I don't understand so many talk-talk now and not before ?

Sony Xperia phones come with Baidu spyware?

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