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My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

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Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#71

Post by hattar »

diarrhea wrote: post #43
miguendes wrote: post #28

Interesting 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 con…

> location logging continues to work with the phone off

I’m very skeptical about this. I’d be interested to know how a phone could track location info while powered off.

Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#73

Post by bigwavedave »

Moru wrote: post #31
MaxBarraclough wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Being screwed over like this is illegal More precisely, these agreements generally aren't legally binding in Europe, but generally are legally binding in the US.

Usually there is a few lines at the end stating that wherever this is illegal, these parts are not binding. (Or something more legalese ofcourse)

> Usually there is a few lines at the end stating that wherever this is illegal, these parts are not binding

Personally, this is what I detest the most. There's always a bit in the boilerplate that's akin to "you agree to everything here, even the unenforceable bits. If we're ever challenged on the unenforceable parts after the fact, you still agree to be bound by everything else here."

IA[very_much]NAL, but to me this always sounds like "We can and will stick whatever nonsense we want in this contract, whether the terms are illegal or not, and you will be bound by them for as long as we can get away with it. If you do ever discover the illegal bits, that doesn't void anything else (including any other illegal bits you haven't found yet!) and you can't sue us- you've given up that right and can only use a mediator from our approved list. May the odds be ever in your favor."

Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#74

Post by Hamuko »

derwiki wrote: post #45
miguendes wrote: post #28

Interesting 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.

>If it were true I feel confident that information would have leaked by now.

Yeah, there's no way for Facebook to be actively listening to conversations on millions of phones connected to private home networks without someone noticing. And that's not even addressing that someone currently or formerly working at Facebook would just blow the whistle at some point.

The problem with this conspiracy theory is that people just don't care about numbers and facts. They usually have an anecdote ("I was talking about cheese and hour later I got an ad for cheese") and that removes any need for hard evidence. Hard evidence that shouldn't be that hard to collect considering you own both the device and the network on which this supposed listening is happening on.

Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#76

Post by mistermann »

tleb_ wrote: post #66
mistermann wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't over worry about such things. If it was that big of a deal, the government would be "on it". After all, is Democracy not the best mechanism possible for executing the aggregate will of the people? And would the will of the people not be to not be tracked in this manner? I predict this undesirable situation will be eliminated in less than one year - or, in case it is more complicated than it seems (and ther…

This has been going on and known for a few years now, why would it change in the upcoming year?

Well if it was important, wouldn't an initiative to rectify it be underway then? Or, might there be a flaw in one of my premises? I only hold these because they seem to be the same premises advertised by other people.

Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#77

Post by shuntress »

raxxorrax wrote: post #16
swiley wrote: post #12

One downside to the security model in popular mobile OSes is that once someone does gain superuser access there's really nothing the user can do short of rebuilding the device since they often don't have it themselves.

I think without said "security" model, we wouldn't have so much malware. Because getting your exact location extracted and send to marketing firms and government contractors is worse than quite a few trojans you could get on your local computer by executing random and even malicious code. It is time that security experts get honest about this and that "experts" lower their voice a bit.

Are the experts experts or are the experts "experts"?

In my experience, security expert generally are honest about this and should, if anything, raise their voices more.

Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#78

Post by martamorena9182 »

dalbasal wrote: post #34
bjarneh wrote: post #13

> “I agree,” I pressed. We had now made a binding agreement, the app and I. I hate this whole premise. We have to agree to an incomprehensible text wall of vague legal nonsense, that very often violate our own laws (as in this case), in order to install an app. These illegal contracts are completely void of any meaning, and it should not matter that you "agreed" to be screwed over like that. Being screwed over like t…

As people, we like to think categorically... especially "contracting" in the philosophical and legal sense. Whether its a medieval oath or a standard employment contract, the concept of "binding agreement" sorts out moral issues of consent and creates a platform for further relations. Reality is generally less fussy about categorical boundaries. It likes spectrum. Linnaean classification is an approximation. Biology…

I legitimately have no clue what you are trying to say. But it sounds very educated, so that's good I guess?

Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#79

Post by csbartus »

I stopped to use smartphones in 2018. Since then I have a Nokia 3310 new model, with Facebook installed. However the wi-fi is turned on around 10 minutes per month, in best case.

What I've immediately observed after switching to the new phone that I'm receiving more precisely targeted ads. Before, on smartphone no adds were relevant, after the smartphone new adds were all relevant.

My guess was the phone / the cellular service company is listening me all the time, not just when talking on the phone.

To test it we've started playing games. Sitting with friends, we've used a predefined brand name very often in a conversation. Next day I've got the ads on the social media, on my laptop, I have no other internet device.

What I'm doing now? Not using the phone at all. Which means 1-2 daily quick conversation to set up places to meet. For long conversations I use email or messengers.

How do I feel? It doesn't bother me at all. I'm not paranoid. I know we are all sold since the blogging era begun. Right now what I can do is to make the lives who exploit data harder in this particular case.

Edit: My phone is Nokia 8110 4G, with KaiOs.

Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#80

Post by alisonkisk »

davvolun wrote: post #63
Moru wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually there is a few lines at the end stating that wherever this is illegal, these parts are not binding. (Or something more legalese ofcourse)

That's kind of the thing though. > Signer agrees to become contract murderer unless pre-empted by local laws and regulations. I'm over-exaggerating, and I get the value when it's prohibitively expensive to write a TOS when it's essentially impossible to pre-emptively vet the legality of all possible clauses internationally as laws constantly change. But if the clause I wrote is technically valid, then what's the poin…

The TOS is about what you can do, not what the company can do.
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