Inexpensive, unpatched phones put billions of users’ privacy at risk

Enlarge / Cellphones charging in the Philippines at a station run by generator in 2013, while power was out in the wake of tyhpoon Haiyan. (credit: Jacob Maentz | Corbis via Getty Images)

Privacy, it seems, is increasingly a luxury reserved for those who can afford it. "Free" services are rarely free, and in the 21st century, the adage seems to be that if you aren't paying with your money, you're paying with your personal data. But while a user at the higher ends of the income scale can afford to be choosy with both their cash and their privacy, users of the cheap, mostly Android-based smartphones that dominate the market worldwide are bearing the burden.

Apple's iPhone might be the single most popular device line among US consumers, but the iPhone's high-end cachet comes with a matching price tag. Likewise, a premium flagship Android phone, such as a new Google Pixel or Samsung Galaxy device, runs in the $500 to $1000 range.

Connectivity, however, is happily not limited to just the global wealthy. Billions of users in both developing and mature economies to whom the price tag puts a high-end phone out of reach still have access to lower-spec devices. Nearly all of the lower-end phones available worldwide run Android, giving Google's OS a greater than 80% market share globally.

Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments