Pocock: Android Betrays Tethering Data

On his blog, Daniel Pocock looks into Android’s tethering behavior. He also describes how to avoid being summarily shut off when tethering—at least on rooted phones. “When I upgraded an Android device the other day, I found that tethering completely stopped working. The updated CyanogenMod had inherited a new bug from Android, informing the carrier that I was tethering. The carrier, Vodafone Italy, had decided to make my life miserable by blocking that traffic. I had a closer look and managed to find a workaround. There is absolutely no difference, from a technical perspective, between data transmitted from a mobile device on-screen application and data transmitted from tethering. Revealing the use of tethering to the carrier is a massive breach of privacy – yet comments in the Google bug tracker suggest it is a feature rather than a bug.“