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ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods

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Re: ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods

#31
>The material does not say how Penlink obtains the smartphone location data in the first place. But surveillance companies and data brokers broadly gather it in two different ways. The first is from small bundles of code included in ordinary apps called software development kits, or SDKs. SDK owners then pay the app developers, who might make things like weather or prayer apps, for their users’ location data. The second is through real-time bidding, or RTB. This is where companies in the online advertising industry place near instantaneous bids to get their advert in front of a certain demographic. A side effect is that companies can obtain data about peoples’ individual devices, including their GPS coordinates. Spy firms have sourced this sort of RTB information from hugely popular smartphone apps.

Sounds like if you're denying location permissions to shady apps (why would you allow in the first place?), you're probably fine.

Re: ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods

#32
post #24
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we all ditch our phones then how will we record the abuses of power?

....cameras exist :)

True, cameras can be taken away or smashed after the fact destroying evidence.

With my phone I can stream video to a cloud so that it can't be deleted. The ACLU used to have an app specifically for this but it seems to have been discontinued. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACLU_Mobile_Justice

Re: ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods

#33
post #22

When I first heard the advice to ditch your phone when you go a protest, I thought maybe that's a little extreme. But it's a real threat. We already knew post Snowden there is an extensive big brother apparatus. We saw post 911 that all rights can be taken away in the name of counter-terrorism. Now with a government that's operating outside the law and labeling peaceful protesters as terrorists, I don't think we can…

If we all ditch our phones then how will we record the abuses of power?

Phone on airplane mode and with location services disabled?

Re: ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods

#36
post #22

When I first heard the advice to ditch your phone when you go a protest, I thought maybe that's a little extreme. But it's a real threat. We already knew post Snowden there is an extensive big brother apparatus. We saw post 911 that all rights can be taken away in the name of counter-terrorism. Now with a government that's operating outside the law and labeling peaceful protesters as terrorists, I don't think we can…

If we all ditch our phones then how will we record the abuses of power?

Point and clicks with no internet connectivity. Practice unloading and reloading SD cards in came someone comes to destroy evidence

Re: ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods

#37
I’d like to personally thank the tech billionaires for inflicting a domestic paramilitary force on the US population under the guise of “enforcing immigration”. Now they have access to the same surveillance tools used by the IDF to track and murder innocent civilians with plausible deniability.

Re: ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods

#39
post #5

Any tips on how to avoid this? I suppose those tin foil signal blockers might be useful?

See my other comment. At least in this particular case the databrokers are getting the data from apps themselves. If you don't grant location permissions to shady weather/transit/delivery apps, you should be safe.
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