81–90 of 220 posts
I miss the times when they needed to trick you into installing spyware. We now have fullstack client and server side malware built-in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claria_Corporation
Unless I'm missing something, the article doesn't back up the claim in the title that "advertisers know where you are" at all.
I personally don't care. My location data is anonimized anyway. And there are sensible reasons for why advertisers can target audiences by region/location. No advertiser can identify me personally. And if I must be shown ads, I choose relevant ads to the nonsense I saw 20 years ago (flashy banners saying I won $1M).
It is very much not anonymized. It is trivially easy (albeit not cheap - around $10k/month) to buy access to mobile ad id data, draw a polygon around your house, and get all the “anonymous” ids. From there, you can see all other locations of those ids. When they anonymize you, that just means they give you an is not linked to your phone number or account. It doesn’t mean someone can’t link it for you. The best defens…
One of the most disappointing changes in Android recently is that any network-assisted geolocation plugins must now be installed as a system app, not a user app. That means that even if you use LineageOS where most Google stuff has been stripped out, getting a GPS fix through network assistance still sends data to Google servers. Only a tiny minority of users are comfortable working with the command line and will ins…
Well, that's not a GPS fix.
If you want a traceless position fix, use GPS Navstar / Glonass / Beidu / Galileo. Yes it takes longer from cold start, but that's the trade-off for privacy.
Just using GMail could help Google to find your approx. location 7/24. Your phone checking emails all the time, so google knows your ip.
Behind a CGNAT, which most mobiles devices are, makes that point fairly moot. When I look up "my ip" on the phone it's always in a capital city 6 hours away. Your mileage may vary of course.
I personally don't care. My location data is anonimized anyway. And there are sensible reasons for why advertisers can target audiences by region/location. No advertiser can identify me personally. And if I must be shown ads, I choose relevant ads to the nonsense I saw 20 years ago (flashy banners saying I won $1M).
Whats actually happening: https://transparencyreport.google.com/user-data/overview
Is there another way? This form of crowd sourcing data is how you are able to know when your next bus or train arrives. But what is the alternative? Should the concerned government body take it up? Your government releases a Maps application and asks citizens to use that...People are still going to have privacy concerns with that! Or we simply decide to wait for the next bus and not bother to know when it arrives. Go…
A standard format for public transportation schedules exists, and many municipalities already provide that format to the public so that map-app developers can show public-transit details. So, people can find out when their next bus or train is going to arrive without giving up any of their own privacy.
Is there another way? This form of crowd sourcing data is how you are able to know when your next bus or train arrives. But what is the alternative? Should the concerned government body take it up? Your government releases a Maps application and asks citizens to use that...People are still going to have privacy concerns with that! Or we simply decide to wait for the next bus and not bother to know when it arrives. Go…
> Or we simply decide to wait for the next bus and not bother to know when it arrives. Go back to a laid back life? Many mortals think that is a good idea, and, that is OK. I'm one of those mortals; my data connection is disabled on the phone and used only for emergencies (last time I've used it was months ago). Ultimately it fits in the big picture of the connected life. One can still live disconnected, and pay 10%…
Your convenience at the expense of your privacy. I personally think it's great that I can lookup what I did two months ago thanks to Google services. I adblock and disable as much ad tracking as possible but I'm pretty happy with how useful google services are for my day to day errands. It reminds me of places I went two years ago that I couldn't remember without it. I find it strange people complain about it, yet st…
Trust me, I am aware of the conflict. I hate Google with a passion, yet I still use some of their services. I feel sick doing it, but sometimes the convenience is worth my nausea.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is very much not anonymized. It is trivially easy (albeit not cheap - around $10k/month) to buy access to mobile ad id data, draw a polygon around your house, and get all the “anonymous” ids. From there, you can see all other locations of those ids. When they anonymize you, that just means they give you an is not linked to your phone number or account. It doesn’t mean someone can’t link it for you. The best defens…
Google does not sell my data.