[potential bug/privacy issue] Weird behaviour with two way sync and linked contacts

asked 2015-02-18 09:19:45 +0300

Yo
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updated 2015-02-18 13:06:58 +0300

saturn
1827 ●19 ●32 ●37

Hi there!

What I did:

I 'synced' my private contacts from my beloved N900 via bluetooth to my Jolla.
I added an account (MS Exchange) on my Jolla to sync calendars and contacts of my working place. Two way sync.
As I do have some of my colleagues in my private contacts as well I linked matching contacts.

What happened:

Private data (like home address, date of birth, private telephone numbers, notes, private email addresses) from my 'synced' private contacts was added to the remote MS Exchange server for all my colleagues to see because the address book I was syncing is a shared address book.

What I expected:

The information provided via the 'synced' contacts from my N900 would not appear on the remote MS Exchange server.

My questions are:

Is this the intended behaviour?
If yes, do you think this behaviour is correct/to be expected?

I have to admit that I felt very bad seeing that I disclosed other people's personal/private information. I did not expect this to happen and I see it as a bug and privacy issue.

What do you think?

Comments

If you have enabled two way sync, then AFAIK all of your contacts will be synced from your phone to the server and other way around.

raketti ( 2015-02-18 09:35:34 +0300 )edit

answered 2015-02-18 10:17:17 +0300

lakutalo

20555 ●168 ●261 ●264

updated 2015-02-25 16:46:12 +0300

If you activate sync to device only in your account settings you will keep your private contacts on your phone.

But in addition to that, each contact should contain the information which remote address book, if any, it has to be synchronised with. It is like that on android. Only this way you can prevent disclosing unwanted information when syncing bidirectionally.

A request that would suit these requirements is here: https://together.jolla.com/question/80748/feature-request-indication-and-selection-of-linkage-between-contact-and-account/

And here is something else that may answer part of your question: https://together.jolla.com/question/70870/linking-new-phone-number-not-synced/

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Comments

If I activate sync to device only I am unable to update contact information on my phone. This is not what I want.

I agree to your opinion that the contact information should be retained to it's original source (the remote address book).

I also agree that the feature request you referred to is related. I knew this request but apart from that I think it's simply wrong to mix up data from different sources (remote address books) when linking contacts.

Yo ( 2015-02-18 17:18:41 +0300 )edit

Sure you can update data by sync to device only but only to the phone, not from the phone. This way none of your private phone entries will be propagated to any server but all entries on the server will be on your phone, too. Isn't that what you wanted? Sure, if there are some redundant contacts you may get double entries.

If you want to distinguish which of the contacts should be synced with which server, or even which details of which contacts should be synced or not, you are right we need an enhancement.

lakutalo ( 2015-02-18 17:53:00 +0300 )edit

To clarify: I meant to write 'If I activate sync to device only I am unable to update contact information from my phone.' But I want to be able to do that. And yes, at least I need an enhancement.

I'm still wondering if anyone expects that linking contacts produces this outcome (see my original question above).

Yo ( 2015-02-18 19:35:56 +0300 )edit

I have added a link to another question in my post that could answer your question above. Seems there are. So in the meantime until we get the desired enhancement, syncing one way is the only way to keep your private contacts private. Let us hope for more soon!

lakutalo ( 2015-02-19 10:39:39 +0300 )edit

[potential bug/privacy issue] Weird behaviour with two way sync and linked contacts

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