(PNN) PPSIMMONS News and Ministry Network: Is your smartphone donating to Obama's campaign?

Friday, August 24, 2012

Is your smartphone donating to Obama's campaign?

Report warns of election-season pitfalls involving high-tech helpers

Check email, hunt for a restaurant, alert your boss about a traffic delay and even monitor the polling trends of your favorite political candidate – all simple functions for today’s high-technology smartphones.
But did you know that your trusty tool could make a donation to a political campaign without your knowledge, give someone else your bank account number and password, or even be used in an orchestrated attack on election systems that could disrupt democracy itself?

That’s according to a new report from the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

The assessment, by Lillie Coney, C. Aaron Cois and Beth Rosenberg, urges consumers to exert an extra level of diligence in checking what their digital doo-dad is doing, can do and should be doing.

“Set smartphone locking features,” the recommendations include. “Check the reputation of any app before installing. … Do not click through the installation of apps. Read each decision you are asked to make – some of them may be seeking access to other data hosted on the phone.”

“Beware of the conditions for making text contributions to campaigns.”
The report was assembled because voters of the 21st century “are experiencing a revolution in political engagement through innovations in communication technology.” But the revolution, the report said, “has the potential to deceive and exploit voters.”