by Charles Liu

Created on: August 11, 2010

This alarmist Android wallpaper story has since been proven inaccurate. Venture Beat, originator of the story, has since retracted their misreporting:

http://mobile.venturebeat.com/2010/08/04/google-andr oid-wallpaper-apps-safe/

'The controversy grew in part because we incorrectly reported in our initial post that the app also sent your text messages and browser history to the website. We corrected the error as soon as we heard the correct information. By that time, news had spread far and wide.

A Google spokesman said, “The developer’s applications have been reviewed and the suspension has been lifted.”'

As you can see, Google investigation cleared the Andorid wallpaper app as safe. It does not steal anything; all phone info gathered is used for Favorits and personalization feature.

Also, there is nothing nefarious with sending data to China. Are all servers in China inherently evil? Is this they kind of generalization somehow reasonable and acceptable? Our media seems to have again snapped to this "China FUD" prejudice, again, when it comes to reporting about China.

This isn't the first time such bias has occurred. The same thing happened during the Google Aurora attack in January. Some "security expert" claimed there's Chinese code in the Aurora malware, and all the news outlets jumped on it without fact checking. Turned out the "Chinese code" is in reality a 4-bit nibble CRC code from 25 year old Novell programming guide: 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/26/aurora_attac k_origins/ 

The New York Times even exposed a school in China as the origin of the attack, a supposed Chinese "military hacker central". This allegation was again proven inaccurate. The school turned out to be some 3rd rate voc tech for highschool dropouts, who's computers were likely exploited for relay:

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1592914/goo gle-bought-chinese-hairdressers 

None of our supposedly objective media developed this story beyond initial China FUD and misreporting. I have to get the truth from The Inquirer.

Whatever happened to fact check? Had people actually talked to the Chinese app developer, none of this would've happened. Most of the media outlets  that repeated the misreporting initially suddenly have no desire to further develop this story, or spend any effort in parity to undo the damage they've done, not only to the poor Chinese app developer, but the contribution such misreportings make in terms of stoking America's rising anti-Chinese sentiment. 

As a minority citizen I am shocked and dismayed at our media's irresponsibility. This story highlights today's racism - a seemingly harmless, easily rationalized and acceptable kind - in my opinion more dangerous than the overt racism of past.

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