A good advice: disable background app refreshes if you use an iPhone.
My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants
41–50 of 176 posts
Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants
#42Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants
#43Interesting article. Is there any way to mitigate the amount of data collected? If I turn GPS off can they still track my steps? One thing that I notice frequently is discussing some topic with my wife and then finding an AD related to the topic on Instagram, LinkedIn, and whatnot. Could be a coincidence but I not sure any more.
The tracking is extremly intrusive. With GPS turned off, accuracy is diminished, but locating the device is still possible via WiFi SSIDs and cell towers the phone is logged into. Maybe Bluetooth also plays a role.
In the background, the phone uses its gyro sensors so it can tell what you are doing: walking, running, getting into a car/sitting down, getting out/up, ...
The unsettling part is that location logging continues to work with the phone off (saw an admittedtly obscure YouTube video on that which I can't seem to dig up again).
Like the Kindle, airplane mode also doesn't stop data from being transmitted to the overlords. It merely delays it from somewhat real-time to whenever you go online again.
Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants
#44Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants
#45Interesting article. Is there any way to mitigate the amount of data collected? If I turn GPS off can they still track my steps? One thing that I notice frequently is discussing some topic with my wife and then finding an AD related to the topic on Instagram, LinkedIn, and whatnot. Could be a coincidence but I not sure any more.
Most likely a coincidence:
https://www.avg.com/en/signal/facebook-listening-private-con...
If it were true I feel confident that information would have leaked by now.
Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants
#46The thread also mentions https://nrkbeta.no/2020/12/03/my-phone-was-spying-on-me-so-i... which would be a better link than twitter.
This is a great illustration of why the GDPR - and enforcement of it - is so important. The average user has absolutely no chance of navigating the digital advertising sewer without all of their data eventually being sold to the US military.
Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants
#47> Kacanova claims that my consent had been lawfully obtained according to GDPR, and that their partners were contractually obliged to only use my data for marketing purposes.
Does anyone actually believe these companies are segregating their data based on what they are legally allowed to do with it? And that those permissions somehow get propagated along with the data to third parties, who then also diligently segregate their data based on legal permissions?
It's difficult to hold these companies accountable and even if you could prove they were misusing the data as an individual, it's difficult to take legal action against them. And even if you do manage to beat them in court, the compensation will almost certainly be a pittance - especially if you're not covered under the GDPR.
Of course they're not doing managing users' personal data responsibly! Even with the GDPR, it's still more lucrative to just not bother.
Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants
#48It seems like this issue can be largely circumvented by the fact that at least on iOS, giving location data now requires much more interaction from the user? Every time a new app asks for your location, you can select whether you want to give it that information all the time, or only while using the app.
Another thing that I've started using recently is NextDNS[1], and it's amazing the amount of tracker garbage that's leaking out, and being blocked on a DNS level, out of almost any mobile application.
[1]: https://nextdns.io/
Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
(Journalist behind article.) Thank you! I can say that it is not easy to use subject access requests to get information. Without the help of Michael Veale’s template and a lot of grit, I don’t think I would have made it. Transparency is just a first step, but it is a powerful tool.
You wrote: " It is uncanny to follow my own steps, even though they do not divulge any romantic affair, secret meetings, or embarrassing health issues. " Contact tracing addresses that shortcoming of the current surveillance tech. Today, finding out that 2 cell phones have been in proximity requires computationally expensive analytics on the server side. With the apparently mandated requirement for contact tracing, e…
I think OP is saying he didn’t have any affairs or other secrets to divulge.
Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
He consented to the collection and Apple would have exactly the same issues. Also Android is marginally more useful than an iOS device. I know that it is fancy as a music player and social media apps, but it isn't really what it could be.
> He consented to the collection and Apple would have exactly the same issues. Would it? In iOS you can selectively forbid applications from using locations services.
My grandma uses an iPhone and it leaks far more data than her PC. Yes, the handling is the issue and here iOS is as bad as Android.
That is the metric I use to determine that the app store security model is bad.