I believe this was part of either an E911 requirement or CIQ(Carrier IQ) feature. Nothing new and nothing crazy.
You are mistaken.
Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled
51–60 of 422 posts
Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled
#52If you care about personal privacy and security of your friends and family, you should discourage them from using Android.
They shouldn't use a phone at all, or the web, or email.
Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled
#53When I'm at work, I use my work computer, which has a long lived static IP, to log into my personal Google account. I have configured all of my browsers to clear cookies and storage upon closing. I never use signed-in Google Maps, but I sometimes use it from that computer, from fresh browser while logged out. A week ago, I moved from my previous home that was close to my work, to a different city about 20 miles away.…
> I have configured all of my browsers to clear cookies and storage upon closing.
Dumb question, but how often do you close your browser though? Mine stays running in the background so it's not often that it gets completely closed.
Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of course, this is meaningless without context. Privacy from who? Security from what? What's the perceived threat we're trying to protect against? Everything is a tradeoff. To absolutely protect your privacy, you must never be seen in public or interact with any other party in any way.
Android is bad for pretty much all threat models. - Worried about Google? Android is bad. Google collects your data. - Worried about the government? Since Google must obey warrants for your data, Android is bad. - Worried about malicious third parties? Since Google has failed to patch even the Pixel line for KRACK until the December update... yeah, Android is bad. And malware through the Play Store that hits large nu…
So you trust Apple more than Google. Great! Don't expect everyone to come to the same conclustion. Trust is not objective.
> I dislike the iPhone, but if you want privacy and security, you should get an iPhone.
If you want privacy and security, don't buy a smartphone.
Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled
#55If you care about personal privacy and security of your friends and family, you should discourage them from using Android.
What can Android or other mobile OS users do to protect their privacy? Is there a mobile OS that genuinely takes privacy seriously, yet is easy to install and use?
My guess is flashing LineageOS + microG + yalp store is closest you can get.
Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled
#56If you're concerned about this level of location tracking, don't carry a cell phone at all.
Keeping track of which cell tower your phone is closest to is fundamental to cellular technology. You can't make or receive calls unless Verizon, T-Mobile, or whichever carrier you have knows which cell to communicate with you through. Regardless of whether Google is tracking this, your carrier certainly is, and with a warrant (or a national security letter), law enforcement can definitely access this data. If you're worried about hackers, I can guarantee you Google protects this data more securely than your carrier does.
Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled
#57If you're concerned about this level of location tracking, don't carry a cell phone at all. Keeping track of which cell tower your phone is closest to is fundamental to cellular technology. You can't make or receive calls unless Verizon, T-Mobile, or whichever carrier you have knows which cell to communicate with you through. Regardless of whether Google is tracking this, your carrier certainly is, and with a warrant…
"Keeping track of which cell tower your phone is closest to is fundamental to cellular technology"
But breadcrumbing it and phoning home to the phone vendor/advertising company?
Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled
#58Yah, if you thought changing privacy settings in $big_company software would really be honored, I have a bridge to sell you.
Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled
#59When I'm at work, I use my work computer, which has a long lived static IP, to log into my personal Google account. I have configured all of my browsers to clear cookies and storage upon closing. I never use signed-in Google Maps, but I sometimes use it from that computer, from fresh browser while logged out. A week ago, I moved from my previous home that was close to my work, to a different city about 20 miles away.…
> I have configured all of my browsers to clear cookies and storage upon closing. Dumb question, but how often do you close your browser though? Mine stays running in the background so it's not often that it gets completely closed.
I close my browser (and all tabs, windows, and any instances of the same process) very frequently, and immediately after I'm done actively interacting with the page.
My point is, I highly doubt my browser usage pattern reflects the way the median user browses the web, and yet even my careful usage wasn't enough to keep Google from correlating enough data about my browsing's attributes (IP, sites visited, location info, logged-in geo-IP), and then expose that cross-bleed in my face.
Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of course, this is meaningless without context. Privacy from who? Security from what? What's the perceived threat we're trying to protect against? Everything is a tradeoff. To absolutely protect your privacy, you must never be seen in public or interact with any other party in any way.
This is sophistry, privacy in the sense that a private company is not continuously compiling a list of every location you visit throughout your life.
And? How does that matter? What's dangerous in them collecting my location information?
I actually have location history in google maps turned on deliberately. You can't imagine how often it helped me to know where I was exactly, one and a half year ago, at a precise time. (That's how I managed to get a copy of my nexus 5x's warranty papers after it died on me)
I don't really care about them collecting info about where I go, because it's actually useful for me. I probably would care if they were a small company with no record, but I do know that the worst Google can do is to target ads based on where I am.
I deeply hate ads, I prefer to pay, and I actually often pay the "no-ads" premium if it's available, but if I do get ads, I prefer them to be as personalized as they can possibly be, because this way they are at least mildly useful sometimes.