Sidekick and big brother

[null_geodesic]

I know someone with a Cingular Sidekick. The Sidekick was refurbished and probably had memory issues because it would constantly hang. It seemed like it hardly ever worked (she since returned it and the new one doesn't hang).

I once witnessed her Sidekick crashing, and it took for freakin ever to reboot. I asked her why it took so long. She replied that when the Sidekick reboots, it has to download her contacts and info from Cingular.

I was horrified.

I love my Treo; it's one of my favorite and most useful toys, but I trust Sprint (and every other telco) about as much as I can throw them. I would never... ever... ever... want even a single bit of data to be transfered from my PDA to Sprint.

It's hard to imagine anybody in their right mind purchasing a PDA where personal data gets transfered to the carrier. But I witnessed this with my own eyes. All her contact's phone numbers. Addresses. Their email addresses. And lord knows what else. It would be a direct marketer's dream come true.

This kind of shenanigans isn't true about my Treo, right? I'm pretty darn sure it doesn't. But I was so shaken by what I saw, I just want some confirmation of something I know can't be true.

[chris]

I know someone with a Cingular Sidekick. The Sidekick was refurbished and probably had memory issues because it would constantly hang. It seemed like it hardly ever worked (she since returned it and the new one doesn't hang).

I once witnessed her Sidekick crashing, and it took for freakin ever to reboot. I asked her why it took so long. She replied that when the Sidekick reboots, it has to download her contacts and info from Cingular.

I was horrified.

I love my Treo; it's one of my favorite and most useful toys, but I trust Sprint (and every other telco) about as much as I can throw them. I would never... ever... ever... want even a single bit of data to be transfered from my PDA to Sprint.

It's hard to imagine anybody in their right mind purchasing a PDA where personal data gets transfered to the carrier. But I witnessed this with my own eyes. All her contact's phone numbers. Addresses. Their email addresses. And lord knows what else. It would be a direct marketer's dream come true.

This kind of shenanigans isn't true about my Treo, right? I'm pretty darn sure it doesn't. But I was so shaken by what I saw, I just want some confirmation of something I know can't be true.

I have heard this about the Sidekick. There was a story floating around a few months back regarding a stolen sidekick. The owner was able to find information about the current user by going to T-Mobile. It helped lead to the recovery (albeit difficult) of her Sidekick.

Regarding the Treo, there is no such setup. Your contact data is not shared with the telco.

-Chris

[Stillrockin]

The story that Chris refers to . .
http://www.evanwashere.com/StolenSidekick/

It was picked up by several big news agencies, the latest being 20/20!