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Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

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Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#141
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, I'm fairly sure that Apple also sells data. Can you point to a source that shows this? This sounds like a lie to me.

As mentioned in the reply to the sibling comment, we can't know for sure unless we have source code.

How would having the iOS source code show you that Apple is selling data?

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#142
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can guarantee you Google protects this data more securely than your carrier does. This sentence is completely insane in this context, did we read the same article? Google should not have access to this data, and it sure as hell shouldn't be sending it up to itself when disabled by the end-user. It's absurd that you typed that out for an article titled "Google collects cell tower info even if location services are…

They were making a related but cogent point about the security implications of Google having this info versus the cell phone carriers. It did not, directly or even by implication, contradict anything you wrote – you're right that this is a privacy violation, but I didn't interpret the comment to which you replied as denying that.

It absolutely is relevant, let's take a moment and review the key point:

> I can guarantee you Google protects this data more securely than your carrier does

Part of acting as a company who cares about user's data includes not collecting data that is sensitive. This is especially true with location data, and is extra especially true when you do it anyway without the user's permission.

Acting like this proves to me, the end user, that google does not guarantee to protect this data more securely than my carrier.

I can see how one could be easily confused by the original comment, but if you take a moment and review it again you'll see it rings even more true now.

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#143
post #63

It's amazing to me how many comments here excuse Google's behavior by offering the impractical "solution" of just not using a smartphone (a false dilemma) when the obvious answer is to get an iPhone. That's the advice of pretty much everyone in the infosec field and I'm sure some of them will attest to that in this thread.

I would much rather have a "feature" phone or no mobile at all than have an iPhone again, even if it were free.

Living in a walled garden to escape prying eyes is sacrificing freedom for security.

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#144
post #30

Certain options should be hardware disable-able and this is one of them.

How would that work? The "location" was the cell tower ID without which you can't be connected to the cell network.

If I move the hardware switch into the off position, I expect that the cellular connection won't work.

I feel like I'm misunderstanding your question.

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#145
post #63

It's amazing to me how many comments here excuse Google's behavior by offering the impractical "solution" of just not using a smartphone (a false dilemma) when the obvious answer is to get an iPhone. That's the advice of pretty much everyone in the infosec field and I'm sure some of them will attest to that in this thread.

Apple provides a black box with iOS, they have full control. Maybe the next iOS update comes with privacy intrusion because it's more lucrative. A more sensible way of dealing wirh the issue would be to use an open source Android version like AOSP or LineageOS, not run proprietary gapps, and replace its functionality with F-Droid, MicroG and Yalp-store. Your location will stay out of Apple's/Google's hands and you ca…

> Maybe the next iOS update comes with privacy intrusion because it's more lucrative.

Apple has demonstrated time and time again their commitment to privacy and to protecting user data.

Apple does not see user data as something to be hoarded. They see user data as a liability and work very hard to collect as little as possible in order to provide the services they do.

The idea that Apple is going to discard all of this and add privacy intrusion into iOS, doing a completely 180° on their business model and discarding all of their corporate principles, is extremely unlikely.

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take your point, but I think it’s important to note that the iPhone SE is half that price. In India, it’s about $309 today.

> In India, it’s about $309 today. So about three times the average monthly wage if the numbers I find are right. (Sneak edit) Just to write it down another way, that means 25% of the average yearly income. For a phone.

So, get one second hand and it will be even cheaper. The point was it is not $700 for security.

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's amazing to me how many comments here excuse Google's behavior by offering the impractical "solution" of just not using a smartphone (a false dilemma) when the obvious answer is to get an iPhone. Smartphone or not, carrying any phone means providing this information to your carrier at all times. I don't like the idea of sending this information to anybody, but to be honest, Google is the entity that I'm the las…

You can also set your phone to airplane mode with WiFi and Bluetooth enabled most of the time unless you need 4g for something like driving directions. Google has much better security than the phone companies anyway, so letting the phone companies know where you are is bad enough. I had the idea to "red team" myself and find out if there's a way of finding out my location history from shady online data broker and the…

Google knows the GPS location of almost every Wifi router, even if nobody has ever (successfully) connected to it with location services. By design, Android will search all Wifi SSID's and send the GPS coordinates back to Google, so that if another phone not using location services connects to that router, Google knows their location by cross-referencing with the stored GPS coordinates.

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple provides a black box with iOS, they have full control. Maybe the next iOS update comes with privacy intrusion because it's more lucrative. A more sensible way of dealing wirh the issue would be to use an open source Android version like AOSP or LineageOS, not run proprietary gapps, and replace its functionality with F-Droid, MicroG and Yalp-store. Your location will stay out of Apple's/Google's hands and you ca…

"Apple provides a black box with iOS, they have full control. Maybe the next iOS update comes with privacy intrusion because it's more lucrative." This is true, but it's also potentially worthwhile to consider that Apple has positioned themselves as a hardware company (i.e. the majority of their money is based on selling units of hardware), whereas their main competitor here (Google) is an ad company (i.e. the majori…

> This is true, but it's also potentially worthwhile to consider that Apple has positioned themselves as a hardware company (i.e. the majority of their money is based on selling units of hardware), whereas their main competitor here (Google) is an ad company (i.e. the majority of their money comes from selling their users' data). Apple has chosen to highlight their commitment to privacy partially because they feel it helps their market position, whereas for Google, it would hurt it.

But this is all just marketing, whereas the reality is that Apple could also be hoovering up location data and you may never know.

You may have good reasons to trust Apple more than Google, which is great. Others may reverse that position of trust (perhaps they had their iCloud account hacked into and photographs leaked on the internet).

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple provides a black box with iOS, they have full control. Maybe the next iOS update comes with privacy intrusion because it's more lucrative. A more sensible way of dealing wirh the issue would be to use an open source Android version like AOSP or LineageOS, not run proprietary gapps, and replace its functionality with F-Droid, MicroG and Yalp-store. Your location will stay out of Apple's/Google's hands and you ca…

> Maybe the next iOS update comes with privacy intrusion because it's more lucrative. Apple has demonstrated time and time again their commitment to privacy and to protecting user data. Apple does not see user data as something to be hoarded. They see user data as a liability and work very hard to collect as little as possible in order to provide the services they do. The idea that Apple is going to discard all of th…

Can you post a link to close my appleID? Yes, you can close a Google/ Microsoft account with few clicks

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's amazing to me how many comments here excuse Google's behavior by offering the impractical "solution" of just not using a smartphone (a false dilemma) when the obvious answer is to get an iPhone. Smartphone or not, carrying any phone means providing this information to your carrier at all times. I don't like the idea of sending this information to anybody, but to be honest, Google is the entity that I'm the las…

You can also set your phone to airplane mode with WiFi and Bluetooth enabled most of the time unless you need 4g for something like driving directions. Google has much better security than the phone companies anyway, so letting the phone companies know where you are is bad enough. I had the idea to "red team" myself and find out if there's a way of finding out my location history from shady online data broker and the…

Unfortunately, we can't even entirely trust our phones then either. You can turn on airplane mode in the OS, but it could still choose to reactivate the radio for short bursts without you knowing. Or the the radio could be set to phone home on a regular basis on its own recognizance. This could potentially occur even if the phone is turned off.

There is no way to ever completely trust a cellular device.

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