The demise of Blackberry, device security and data mining

I used to look down on Blackberry devices; they appeared dated and more business-related devices.

This is pretty unfair as I had not had bothered to actually try one. Now I have, I actually like the simplicity of the OS. Which is quite surprising especially as I am running BB7 and not the newer versions of the OS.

But Blackberry is in trouble. They have most recently launched the 'Priv'. This runs Android so is totally at odds with what they have done in the past. However it does have that physical keyboard, which I actually really, really like.

The Physical Keyboard

The physical keyboard is one of those stand-out features that really identifies a Blackberry (at least it did). It did seem antiquated to me but since using it I have noticed that I really enjoy the tactile feel of a real keyboard. The press of the buttons, the satisfying click as you type. It feels robust and solid and despite being compact is a rather good experience. So I imagine the physical keyboard on the 'Priv' also ought to be pretty good too. So perhaps this is a device that has got a chance maybe?

Security

There has been a lot in the press about security on devices, aimed at Google (Android) devices in particular. If there is a vulnerability in the software it should be fixed, but by who? Google will always fix any issues reasonably quickly now, and send out these patches to its supported Nexus devices. That is ok if you happen to own one of those devices, but what about everyone else with an Android phone? Well, the patch will be picked up by the phone manufacturer, and they consider if a device is worthy of their time to create a patch. Assuming that they do this, the patched software is then passed onto the network providers for them to test/evaluate before pushing the update out to the users.

Sadly this doesn't seem to happen to the majority of devices, especially older devices. If you have an unlocked device then you will get the update sooner assuming your manufacturer decided to apply the fix.

Data Mining

And apparently there are a lot of apps that actively mine for data, on both Apple and Android devices (not sure about Microsoft; I haven't read too much about them). Android seems statistically worse.

I have gone off topic a bit, but I am pretty sure my old Blackberry isn't as affected by all of this simply because of its age. And the selling point of the new 'Priv' is  that it provides better security. But in the current climate of 'cool' devices fewer people seem concerned with privacy as you might expect, or are ill-informed of the risk on their device.