Andre Yoskowitz
27 Feb 2013 14:14
Earlier this week, HTC America announced that it would settle with the FCC over claims it did not "take adequate steps to eliminate security flaws" that eventually put millions of smartphone owner's data at risk of being stolen.
The FCC had claimed that HTC built millions of phones with security flaws that allowed for third-party applications to "evade Android's permission-based security model." Android, which will always give users notice if data is being revealed to third parties, was prevented from doing so by the flaws built into the HTC smartphones.
FTC officials had strong words for other OEMs that may be considering following in HTC's footsteps.
"To settle the case - the FTC's first against a device manufacturer - HTC has agreed to a far-reaching settlement that imposes a first-of-its-kind remedy: patching vulnerabilities on millions of mobile devices," FTC senior attorney Lesley Fair wrote in the commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection blog.
The case was related to Carrier IQ, which we have reported on in-depth here on Afterdawn.
Read more here: Lesley Fair