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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

#111

Post by SoSoRoCoCo »

FYI, Sen. Ron Wyden is pretty much the only US congressperson actually -doing- anything about this. He is relentless in his attacks on the industry and understands the technology. I saw him at DefCon and yes, he sounds like a politician, but he's fighting the good fight.

FTA:

In a statement, Senator Ron Wyden said “Venntel has stonewalled Congress for months and refused to identify the sources of the data it is selling to Customs and Border Protection and other government agencies. The U.S. needs far stronger laws to protect Americans’ privacy, and ensure transparency about where our data is going."

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

#112

Post by rcoveson »

londons_explore wrote: post #65
diarrhea wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> The unsettling part is that location logging continues to work with the phone off There are specific bits of malware that make the phone appear to be off when it is in fact powered on. Such malware typically requires root access or an exploit, and is the realm of shady governments not advertiser's. But if you don't have that malware, you can't be tracked when the phone is off.

I'm sure there's plenty of RF energy to make a passive phone case that lights up when your phone is transmitting, which would detect this case if you were looking at your phone. Maybe having it emit a tone would be better.

It would be fun to see if you could get a modern phone to shut up for even five seconds when powered on.

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

#113

Post by mensetmanusman »

It finally appears that we built the wrong monetization strategy for the Internet.

Ideally users would have the option of having some sort of digital bank associated with their web browsing. Micro transactions could pay to support the websites instead of advertisements.

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

#114

Post by throwaway_pdp09 »

jnsie wrote: post #29
asicsp wrote: post #3

The 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.

That is a fantastic but very unsettling article. It's a somewhat dystopian present we live in

There are way to fight back. If you choose to. Convenience usually comes first it seems.

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

#117

Post by KingMachiavelli »

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.

As far as I know the largest offenders are still the cellular companies since they can and are selling location data that works without any software on the phone. It's technically less precise than GPS/wifi location data but since it's always active it's pretty easy to use weeks of data to improve the resolution.

Besides that just don't install any apps you don't need. Stick to open source software, install a custom ROM on your phone, don't use Google location services, etc.

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

#118

Post by chungus_khan »

SoSoRoCoCo wrote: post #111

FYI, Sen. Ron Wyden is pretty much the only US congressperson actually -doing- anything about this. He is relentless in his attacks on the industry and understands the technology. I saw him at DefCon and yes, he sounds like a politician, but he's fighting the good fight. FTA: In a statement, Senator Ron Wyden said “Venntel has stonewalled Congress for months and refused to identify the sources of the data it is selli…

And most of the rest of congress aren't just not doing anything about it, they consistently support the American surveillance state and voted on its expansion. It's incredibly rare for privacy to even be on the ticket.

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

#119

Post by mmgu »

PeterStuer wrote: post #110
baxtr wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we have a very successful short messages app, that now resulted in another service to be successful, which combines the short messages into a long format. Innovation and evolution aren't always straightforward I guess!

Or you can just read the article on the website https://nrkbeta.no/2020/12/03/my-phone-was-spying-on-me-so-i...

I hacked the tweet thread together in 15 min so I think the article might be a better (although longer) read.

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

#120

Post by mmgu »

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.

Turning off ad id in the OS and checking which apps have access to location would do wonders. Would also recommend checking which apps have access to the contact list.
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