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Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens

gizmodo.com

191–200 of 233 posts

Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens

#191
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always been floored that people leave their location services turned on by default. I have mine on for no more than a few minutes a month. I only turn it on when I'm in an unfamiliar location, don't have my bearings, and looking at the map alone isn't enough to help without GPS.

What are you gaining in exchange for making your life harder?

You gain more conscious decision making and that can help you a lot in life.

Sure you could just give in and "go with the flow" because that's what majority does and it's very convenient.

Also people as social beings want to belong to groups and doing the same stuff they do is the easiest way to gain access to groups.

That's the reason why so many use WA and FB and don't even care about their data. They already gave up and make fun about those who haven't.

If you have courage and a strong personality you can withstand this peer pressure. If you are cool enough there will be others to follow you. If not you can also learn to deal with that and in the end it's only necessary to have a few really good friends in your life.

TLDR; You gain more control over your life and strengthen your personality.

Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens

#192
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always been floored that people leave their location services turned on by default. I have mine on for no more than a few minutes a month. I only turn it on when I'm in an unfamiliar location, don't have my bearings, and looking at the map alone isn't enough to help without GPS.

I'm sure you believe that corporations are evil and basically out to get you, but the vast majority of people doesn't. I think it's safe to assume that you're the outlier here. Have you ever tried putting yourself in the shoes of people who leave their GPS on? Can you see how much better the user experience is? Can you understand why someone who never had a negative experience involving their location data might pref…

It's not about the majority - don't you see that?

It's about the 1-3% who will f* you for being a naive sheep.

That is why we can't trust these corporations and that they get more powerful everyday doesn't ease my mind (accumulation until we only have "the shop").

The problem with our economy is the basis for that. In our world (at least in the west, can't really compare that to the east as I only know it from western propaganda) the biggest goal is MONEY (=POWER).

Ethics, environment and people just don't count in this equation (ok they do if you want to improve your image).

Sure that's not what majority of the people sees but also they don't know anything about computers & software and most of them probably haven't thought much about ethics & philosophy. Just because majority does something is not a very good argument (see lemmings).

Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens

#193
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you’re fortunate to not need it, but I lived in an unfamiliar place for a few months and I used my map apps to identify the best routes (public transit, biking, should I walk, or should I Uber?) nearly 3-4 times a day. Turning it off/on would be difficult, but I do set most apps to only allow location services during use... but the maps I have set to always. I also don’t have the Facebook app installed

The alternative is to keep location on (while in use), but download offline maps. No idea if the app phones home with all historical location data if you re-enable data though... Maybe that’s why Google likes to expire it’s offline maps ?

OsmAnd and MapsWithMe are good apps that you can use offline maps on indefinetly once downloaded. They use Openstreetmap of course.

Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens

#194
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are paranoid about your location data and security patches you should consider lineageOS and microg [1]. Awesome projects. You can have your location data stored in your phone and not rely on google. [1] https://lineage.microg.org/

This is just not enough. I want to control the baseband and I want hardware switches on microphones, location and cameras. Also there is F-Droid (only open source apps for Android) and the Yalp Store (alternative to Google Play with faked account so you don't have to own one). Hacking my device like with jailbreak (iOS) or rooting (android) is not the way I want to have to go to feel secure and it's nothing I want to…

Perhaps the Librem 5, Necuno or Fairphone 3 will be suffice. We have a currated list of fair devices on the Fairphone Community forums [1].

[1] https://forum.fairphone.com/t/list-of-fairly-fair-electronic...

Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens

#195
post #159

From a comment I had left on a related thread, > Though very uncanny, this is rather easy to extrapolate even using the basic facets FB has available. But the most overlooked is photos. They are offline beacons and are to offline tracking what websites are to online tracking. For example you and a group of 10 other people took photos at the same location which FB sees as a small gathering of intimate friends. It will…

On the exact day when my daughter started first grade this year, Google Photos (which I use pretty often) notified me that it had made a new video montage. It started with a title slide saying "Look how fast they grow", and then showed photos and videos of her (not a single mistake with one of my other kids or any of her friends) growing up from ages 0 to 6, ending with the photo I had just taken of her in front of s…

I agree. It's just so convenient to use Google Photos as a backup and method of sharing albums that the threshold for leaving the service is super high, at least in my book.

Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens

#196
post #159

From a comment I had left on a related thread, > Though very uncanny, this is rather easy to extrapolate even using the basic facets FB has available. But the most overlooked is photos. They are offline beacons and are to offline tracking what websites are to online tracking. For example you and a group of 10 other people took photos at the same location which FB sees as a small gathering of intimate friends. It will…

On the exact day when my daughter started first grade this year, Google Photos (which I use pretty often) notified me that it had made a new video montage. It started with a title slide saying "Look how fast they grow", and then showed photos and videos of her (not a single mistake with one of my other kids or any of her friends) growing up from ages 0 to 6, ending with the photo I had just taken of her in front of s…

Imagine how much Google, Facebook, et al will know about your daughter when she finally turns 13 and can open an account.

Cradle to grave data collection!

Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens

#197
Imagine being at a bar, and a guy engages you in conversation. You try your best to indicate you're not interested, and your friends help shoo him away. Then, that night when we gets home Facebook tells him your name and suggests you connect. Creepy AF (and not the guy)

Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens

#199
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that Google knows where I work, and what days I work, and uses that information to alert me before I leave whether there's a better route is worth it. That feature alone can save tens of minutes to hours per week, not to mention all the other benefits.

What other benefits do you experience from sharing that information? The traffic alerts was one, but could you elaborate on the others?

Someone already mentioned it, but the timeline feature is great. I can see where I was, what time, how long it took, etc. It also tells me the last time I went somewhere.

Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens

#200

What's the news story here? Tech companies file innumerable number of patents without implementing them to cover the space in case they get sued so they can retaliate. Realistically this patent wouldn't actually be useful in practice for the proposed application but would be useful if written carefully enough to countersue for unrelated applications of the tech.

What? You're saying companies file patents on tech they don't intend on using so they don't get sued by patent trolls for their non-use of some other preexisting patent? That doesn't make sense on any level. And if you don't think such a thing would be useful to a company like this (if it could really be made to work) you aren't using your imagination properly.

Not trolls. Retaliatory patent infringement suits don’t really work on trolls, because they don’t have a product to accuse.

Think more along the lines of competitor companies that are already operating.

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